‘THE CRISIS OF ok ie
SUGAR COLONIES:
AN ENQUIRY
OBJECTS AND PROBABLE EFFECTS
OF THE
French Cae
THE WEST INDIES;
And their Connection with the
COLONIAL INTERESTS OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE. ,
TO WHICH ARE SUBJOINED,
SKETCHES OF PLAN
FOR SETTLING THE
a
VACANT LANDS
-_ TRINIDADA. |
by James Stephen. sails
IN FOUR LETTERS
TO THE
Ricut Hon. HENRY ADDINGTON,
CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER, &c.
London :
PRINTED FOR J. HATCHARD,
Bookseller to Her Majesty, No. 190, (Opposite York House,) Piccadilly,
a OAS
Ps
=
Bartra.e-and Basti, Printers,
No. &4, Great Windmill Street, Haymuket
#.
ADVERTISEMENT.
"THAT the Reader may not suppose the
general views of West India affairs which
are disclosed in these sheets to have been
suggested or influenced by the news lately
received from St. Domingo, it may be
proper to apprise him that three of the
Letters, and great part of the fourth, were
printed before the Public was possessed
of any intelligence respecting the arrival
of the French Expedition at that Island.
In fact this work was commenced very
early in the year, and was nearly finished
a month ago, though private avocations
and other causes have till now unavoidably
delayed its completion, and retarded its
progress through the press.
March 27, 1802,
iF
CONTENTS.
LETTER I.
GENERAL preliminary reflections on the
- Peace.—Subjects of enquiry proposed.—For-
mer slavery of ‘the negroes in the French
Colonies defined and described.—Nature of
the recent changes in their condition stated
and proved.—Reasons assigned for believing
that a restitution of the old slavery is the
true object which the West India expedition
is designed to accomplish.
LETTER IL
“The probable issue of the expedition as far as
relates to the French Colonies enquired. into.’
—Motives that will induce the negroes to
resist.—Their means of resistance.—General
difficulties of West India war.—Their nature |
and causes explained:—Comparative advan-
tages possessed by negro troops.—Means of
sepelling invasion arising from the face of the
ne country
means of slavery and the. Slave. Trade.—-The
rw
country and the climate.—Diffculties of keep-
ing the negroes in subjection if conquered, and
of restoring permanently the former system of.
bondage.
LETTER IIL
The probable consequences of . the expedition
more.immediately affecting the interest of
Great Britain in the West Indies considered.
—1st, Consequences of the total failure of
the enterprise.—2d, Those of a middle event
or compromise; or of an immediate agree-
ment on the basis of the liberty of the ne-
groes.—3d, Probable effects of the entire
success of the supposed enterprise of the Re- |
public_—Dangers to which the British Islands
will in either of these cases be exposed.
LETTER IV. --
Measures that the prospects opened in the former
letters should suggest.— A strict neutrality
between France and her. Colonies .recom-
mended.—Means of defence that ought to be
prepared in our West India Islands.—-Right
of Parliament to make laws for the govern-
ment of the Colonies. considered.—THOUGHTS
ON THE MEANS OF SETTLING TRINIDADA.—
The vacant lands ought not to:be settled by
sale
: [ vii ]
sale of the Crown lands ought at least to be
deferred.—Moral view of the question of
opening anew slave Colony after the resolu-
tions of the House of Commons in 1792.—
Innocent uses that may be made of this
Island. —Its commercial advaniages.—The
practicability of cultivating the uncleared
lands by the labour of free negroes.—General
; suggestions on that head.—Conclusion
event
gree
€ ne- ss
ntire %
»Re- @
lands
»
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.
2
sabinins te teekaaabdeaanamemmadtnona ee ra Tn RTE OR RINT IRI i a aR nee * Fone eens
" eee en ee SNA sae entree ee r Sina clepimatntbia : z
RIGHT HONOURABLE
HENRY ADDINGTON,
Se. &e.
Sir,
A STRANGER solicits your at-
tention on a subject of the highest importance ;
a subject which requires from. you, as Prime Mi-
- nister of this country, early and anxious investi-
gation.
The voice of advice to a Minister when public,
is generally hostile; but I am not an enemy, nor
will my purpose be found unfriendly : indeed an
Englishman can hardly, at this hour, be adverse
to your administration, upon principles that
fairly belong toa lover of his country. Your,
claims on the gratitude of the nation, are un-
deniably great. You gallantly took the helm at. .
a'moment of unparalleled danger, and already
we have weathered the storm: The dawn of, ¢
your administration has been a rapid. passage
from ©
[ 2 ]
from danger to security, from famine to plenty,
from arduous and seemingly interminable war to
peace. ;
Nor is it. essential to the glory of this
contrast, to assert.that the merit of the tran- —
sition belongs exclusively to yourself. While
we ascribe to the bounty of Providence, the .
late exuberant harvest, and to its supreme and
over-ruling sway, the whole deliverance, and
while in the next place we fairly allow to your
predecessors much of what your own candour
ascribed to them as to the concluding triumphs
of our arms, it will not be forgotten that the judi-
cious use of means and opportunities, by which
advantages have been improved into bles-
sings, has been all your own. Neither de-
pressed by calamity, nor distracted by diffi-
culties, nor inflated by success, you have dis-
played in the management of the helm of state
a wisdom not inferior to the courage and disin-
terestedness with which it was assumed.
~ With such a minister, the admonitions of the
press may not be necessary to add to the native
force of truth the influence of its publicity; but
the subject to which I would solicit your atten-
tion, is one upon which the public mind is not, 7
‘fear, sufficiently enlightened; and the popular
voice, which is in sume cases a salutary controul,
may. in others be.a needful aid, to me measures of
a wise administration.
Of
lenty,
yar to
this
tran-
Vhile
, the .
e and
and
your
ndour
mphs
judi-
vhich
bles-
r de-
diffi-
2 dis-
state
disin-
bf the
ta j
Of the peace you have given to your country,
the conditions do ‘honour to your judgement.
They have enlarged the bounds of the’ British.
empire and to an extent full as great as was either
-reasonable to. expect, or prudent torequire. Of the
French conquests in Europe it.would have been
absurd to hope the restitution; and if there be
any man who still thinks a larger portion of our
own in distant parts of the globe ought to have
been retained, he foryets the nature of those dan-
gers which the war was so long prosecuted to
avert, and to diminish which, as much as'pos-
sible, was the British pacificator’s most important
object. He does not sufficiently consider that in
the social, asin the natural body, extension is not
strength; and that still more widely to disperse
our much scattered energies, would have been to
lessen, rather thanencrease, our security against a
tival force, formidable chiefly by its vicinity and
its concentration : nor do such politicians remem-
ber that commerce is the best sedative for the rest-
less spirit of a warlike people ; and their transma-
rine possessions the best guarantees of theirpacific
engagements to the greatest of maritime states, |
. For my own part, I freely confess that, could
we have obtained the cession of all aur colonial
conquests, I should have thovght a Peace of
such splendid acquisition, far less advantageous
than the terms which your modetatién has’ ems
braced. Te. VOU O
Cessions
La al
Cessions more extensive, could scarcely have
been sincere; and would rather have resembled
jewels lent to adorn a victim, than genuine of-
ferings on the altar of Peace.
But, it is useless to.add the applause of a single
voite to that chorus of approbation raised by.
parliament, and the nation at large: Nor is it
the object of this address to justify the wisdom of
the treaty, or throw new light on its advantages; -
but rather to point out some serious dangers of
which the peace, prudent and beneficial as it is,
~ unavoidably quickened the approach.
' Already one of its consequences has strongly
eiccieesl and still fixes the public atteni.on. No
sooner were the ports of France released from the
Jong embargo which our victorious and irresist-
ible navy had imposed, than armaments of great
magnitude began to be prepared in them; and
with such) dispatch were they compleated, that,
in little more than two months from the ratifica-
tion of the preliminary articles, a powerful expe-
dition issued forth, consisting, .according to ge-
neral and uncontradicted report, of 25 sail of
the line, and 25,000 regular troops.
That St. Domingo is the place of destination
of this very formidable force, we have not only
the warrant of uniform rumour, but, if I mistake
not, of official authority for believing; but all
beyond that point is uncertainty and anxious
conjecture.
What
[ 63
What specific changes the armament on its
arrival is to operate or attempt; and whether its
ultimate objects;are safe or perilous, friendly or
hostile to this’ country, are questions not less
doubtful than important.
.. Like the Trojans, who sallying: from their
gates: to enjoy their sudden and,‘unhoped for
Peace, were soon arrested. bythe sight of the
stuperidous: horse, we gaze with ;wonder on
this great effort’ of our, recent enemy; the post-
humous birth of war, and as in their.case,
Scinditur incertum studia in contraria vulgus.
While mauy :are loud, in expressing their. rash
approbation, and even exhort.us to assist it
fixing this portentous force in the colonial cita-
del, others suspiciously; exclaim
f it ( ‘ ' ; j mous tr i : . v }
inynostros fabricata est machina muros ;
ri | “es ag wage
Inspectura,domos, venturaque desuper urbi.
“ :
I hope, therefore, it will not be uninteresting,
and am sure it will not be unimportant, to en-
quire, as I propose to do in the following pages,
First.—W hat:are presumably. the objects of
the French West India expedition? ,
Secondly.-- What conseyuences interesting to
Great Britain are likely to result from it?
Lastly.—What measures does the probability
of such consequences demand from the prudence
of the BRiTIsu Government ?
| In
Loy
'\’ fn attempting to ascertain in the first place,
the true ‘objects of this grand enterprise of the
Republic, I will dismiss from the field of con-
jecture, as too improbable to be seriously re.
ceived, the notion of a design direotly and
immediately hostile to this country. Such bare-
faced perfidy would be too repugnant: to’ the
ktiown policy of the Chief Consul, if not also
to lis principles, to be reasonably feared; atid
it would be ‘wronging your wisdom, Sit; and
that of your colleagues in the Cabinet, to sup-
pose that the expedition would have been al-
lowed to sai unmolested, had you not been fur-
fished with satisfactory evidence that his views
Were sincerély pacific,
- As a recessdry consequence of thé sane prin-
ciples, I will presume that:the French Colonies
eit lm!
cal ends accomplished by the power or terror of
the sword?” Here again opinions are greatly
divided. !
Whilé some persons speak of St. Domingo
as a revolted colony, that, like the United:
States of America, has renounced its allegiatice
to the parét state, and js therefore to be'reduc: '
ed by force to its former dependence, others
appear to view the quarref ‘as a mere contest for
power between Toussaint and Buonapatte ; and
: ta
aire
place,
fF the
COn-
y Te.
y and
bare-
o the
t also
; anid
5 and
) sup-
“n al-
n fur-
views
| prin-
lonies
ents
what
) oliti-
ror of
eatly
ingo
ited:
hance
ca"
thers
st for
and
~ ta
{ # J
to imagine that the question lies between the
Constitution lately. framed by the former, and
the military government of the latter; between
the Consal of St. Domingo, and the Consul of
France. .
Politicans of a third class, comprising, I be-
lieve, almost all who are well informed’of West
India affairs, carry their views much farther,
and conclude that ‘the true, though unavowedl,
ptitposé of the French ‘Govertiment in this éx-
pedition, is to restore the old system of negro
slavery in St. Domingo, and in the other co-
Jonies wherein it has'béen subverted.
The last of these opinions appears to me by
fat thé most probable; and I purpose to offer
somre reasons in ‘its’ support. It is, howéver, re-
quisite’ previously té'state, generally indeed, and
briefly, yet not without precision, what the old
system of slavery stibstintially was, and in what
points its restitution will alter ve present con-
dition of the negroes. °
Without ‘some accurate preliminary know-
ledge of the difference between these two states,
Wwe cannot propertly estimate the probability of
the supposed ‘desigi, ndr the difficulties after-
Wards tu v¢ rire that will attend its exe-
eution,:
Thet the trae’ ithture of West India slavery is
very imperfeetly understood in this country,
may appear a bold proposition; but is one,
which,
%
u
mi |
i
y
i
te
th
il
De nner nS meer em
Fe a ae bn
C8 ]
which, from personal and long acquaintance
with that system, and from ample opportunities
of hearing the: opinions. prevalent in England
on the. subject, I am led with some confidence
to affirm.
Neither the friends: nor the enemies: of the
slave trade, seem to me to have attended suffi-
ciently to that feature, which. is in: truth the
most essential characteristic of colonial bondage,
and chiefly distinguishes it. from every other
state of man, that is known to the traveller, or
the historian. : : id
“ Are we then,” it may be asked with alarm,
“are we to haye new facts disclosed ; and new
‘* contradictions to decide upon, between: the
*¢ Abolitionists and the Planters?” By no means.
The misapprehension I_alledge, arises. neither
from the want nor the, inconsistency. of evi-
dence; but from inattention to facts perfectly
notorious, and never controverted or denied.
That West India slaves, whether French’
or English, are the property of their master,
and transferrable by him, like his inanimate ef-
fects; that in general he is absolute arbiter of
the extent and the mode of their labour, and
of the quantum of subsistence to be given in
return for it; and that they are disciplined and
punished at his discretion, direct privation of
life or member excepted ; these are prominent
features,
ance
1ities
land
lence
the
suffi-
1 the
lage,
other
T, or
larm,
new
1: the
pans,
ither
evi-
ectly
ench'
ster,
e ef-
er of
and
in
and
[ & I
features, and sufficiently known, of ‘this statd
of slavery.
Nor is the:manner in which the labour of
slaves is conducted, a matter of less publictiy.
Every man who has heard.any thing -of West
India affairs, is acquainted with the term negro-
drivers; and knows, or may know, that the
slaves in their ordinary field labour are driven
to their work; and during their work, in the
strict sense of the term, “ driven,” as used in
Europe; though this statement no more in-
volves an intimation, that in practice the: lash
is incessantly; or with any needless frequency,
applied to their backs, than the phrase “to drive
a team of horses,” imports that the waggoner
is continually smacking his whip.’ I use the.com-
parison merely as descriptive, and not in censure
of the West. India system; with the accusation, |
or defence, of which, in a moral view, my ar-
-gument, let it be observed, has no necessary
connection. It is enough for my purpose, that
in point of fact, no feature of West India sla-.
very is better known, or less liable to contro-
versy or doubt, than this established method in
which field labour is enforced.
‘Buta nearer and more particular view of this lead-
ing characteristic, may be necessary to those who
have never seen a gang of negroes at their work. |
When employed in the labour of the field,
_ as, for example, in holeing a cane piece, i.e.
in
[ 10 ]
in turning up the ground with hoes into paral-
lel trenches, for the reception of the cane plants,
the slaves, of both sexes, from twenty, perhaps, to
fourscore in number, are drawn out ina line, like
troops on a parade, each with a hoe in his hand,
and closé to them in the rear is stationed, a driver,
or several drivers, in number duly proportioned
to that of the gang. Each * these drivers, who
are always the most active and vigorous negroes
on the estate, has in his hand, or coiled round
his neck, from which by extending the: handle,
it can be disengaged in a moment, a long thick
and strongly plaited whip, called ‘a cart whip;
the teport of which is as loud, and the lash as
severe, as those of the whips in ‘common
use with our waggoners, and which he has
authority to. apply at the instant when his
eye perceives an occasion, without any pre-
vious, warning.—Thus disposed, their work be-
wins, and continues without imterruption for a
certain number of hours, during which, at the
peril of the drivers, an adequate portion of land.
must be holed.
As the trenches are generally rectilinear, and
the whole line of holers advance together, it
is necessary that every hole or section of the
trench shoukd be finished in equal time with the
rest; and if any one or more negroes were al-
lowed to throw im the hoe.with less rapidity: oy
encrgy than their companions in other parts of
the .
cu]
the line, it is Obvious that the work of the latter
must be suspended; or elsé, such part of thé
trench as is passed over by the former, wilk be
more imperfectly formed than the rest. It
is, therefore, the business of thé drivers, not
only to urge forward the whole gang with
sufficient speed, bat sedulously to watch that
all in the line, whether male or female, old
or young, strong or feeble, work as ‘nearly as
possible in “equal time,’ and with equal effect.
The tardy’ stroke must be quickened, and the
languid invigorated ; and the whole line made
to dress, in the military phrase, as it advances.
No breathing time, no resting on the hoe, no
pause of languor, to be repaid by brisker exer-
tion on return to work, cat’ be’ allowed to imdi-
viduals: All must work, ‘or pause together,
'T have: taken this species ‘of ‘work as the
strongest example: But other labours’ of' the
plantation are’ conducted upon the same ptinici-
ple, and, as nearly as mmtay be practicable, in the
same manner.
When the nature of the work does not adinit of
the siaves being drawn up in’ a line abreast, they
are disposed, when the mtasure is feasible, in some
other regular order, for the facility of the drivers
superintentience and coercion. ‘In carrying the
canes, for instance, from the field to the mill,
they are marched jn files, each with a bundle on
his head, and with the driver in the rear: His
voice
{ 12 3
voice quickens their pace, and his whip, when
necessary, urges on those who attemps to deviate
or loiter in their march.
Some parts. indeed of the work. of a planta-
tion can, only be done by the slaves, in a state
of dispersion, such as plucking ‘the grass, blade
by. blade in the ranges, or hedge rows, or on
the mountains, for the provender of the horses
and.cattle. It is obvious that, .in such. cases,
the immediate ‘coercion of. the driver cannot be
applied ; recourse is therefore had to the mode
of individual task-work. Each slave, for ex-
ample, is obliged to produce and deliver to the
- driver or overseer, within a limited time, a bun-
' dle of grass of a certain magnitude, on pain of
immediate ppnishment by the cart-whip on his
return from the field; and to quicken exertion
at this task the time. allowed for it is a part of
the respite from more regular. work, given
to. the slave, both for, this purpose, and for
preparing and eating his meal; so that if he
wastes time in grass-hunting, he loses in the
same proportion the comfort of his dinner, or
perhaps the dinner itself; from want of time to
prepare it, Yet so inadequate are these seem-
ingly powerful expedients to supply with men
used to be.driven, the presence of the driver, that
the bundles of grass are rarely brought in by all
the slaves in due time, and of sufficient mag-
nitude; and it has been observed of this part of
their
when
leviate
lantae
, State
blade
or on
horses
cases,
ot be
mode
yr ex-
o the
_bun-
in of
n his
rtion
art of
Driven
for
f he
the
OL
e to
pem-
men
that
y all
ag-
t of
) [ 13 ]
their work in the English Islands, that the. neg-
lect of it occasions more punishment than all
the rest of their trespasses put together.
With these, and other necessary exceptions of |
solitary work, such as that performed by sugar-
boilers and certain artificers, the compulsion of:
labour by the physical impulse or present terror of
the whip is universal ; and it would be as extraor-
dinary a sight in a West India Island to see a line
or fileof negroes without a driver behind them, as
it would be in England to meet a team of horses on
a turnpike road without a carman or waggoner.
Let me again profess, that the comparison is
not made for the sake of odium, but only for
illustration, which no less offensive image that
occurs to me can so well furnish.
Such then, Sir, antecedently to the revolution,
were the most important lineaments of the con-
dition: of the negroes in the French Colonies:
unless it differed in these points, which, during
many years residence in their neighbourhood I
never heard asserted, from the state of the English
slaves. The negroes were the absolute, vendible
property of the master, were worked and main-
tained at his discretion,* and were driven at
their labours in the field.
* The regulations of the Code noir which went partly to
. restrain the abuse of this power and that of punishment, were
almost wholly neglected in practice.—See Annales du Conseil
Souverain de la Martinique.—Tome i. 262.8, and 281.
A great
fi
1
2
a,
|
WY
Mi i
i
|
I
REMUS ie SS ee sep <=
Sree
NRO Rt elma
3 easel wees i
eR TT 2 Le <=
ema mle
14]
A great change 5 since been introduced at
St, Domingo, Cayenne, and Guadaloupe ; in
the former by insurrection, in the two latter by
decrees of the National Convention of France;
‘and I would, in the next place, briefly er quire
what have been its nature and effects.
Of the interior affairs of those Colonies since
this change took place very little distinct infor-
mation has been attainable in Europe. The press,
which by. giving domestic publicity to the
events of a civilized community, brings them
easily to the notice of its neighbours, has natu-
rally been inactive. among an illiterate people ;
and they have been visited only by persons whose
errand was commerce or war, and who have in
general had little desire, and less oppertunity, to
procure statistical intelligence; and as little dis-
position to lay such intelligence as they chanced
to acquire befare the public on their return.
The danger that might have attended research,
in a country yet agitated by the waves of, revo-
lution, a country where a white face was an en-
sign of hostility, has doubtless tended power-
fully to restrain curiosity in the visitors.of St.
Domingo.
But after full allowance made for all these
obstacles, there will remain considerable ground
for surprise at the profound darkness that
hangs over some parts of this interesting sub-
ject.. From the interior of St. Domingo in par-
ticular, scarcely one distinct ray has reached our
horizon ;
iced at
$ since
t infor-
e press,
to the
s them
3 natu-
people ;
3 whose
lave in
nity, to
tle dis-
hanced
n.
search,
f, revo-
an en-
power-
of St.
1 these
round
s that
g sub-
in. pat-
ed our
Dr1ZON ;
9
es.
+
{ 15 ]
horizon, and its affairs are almost as unknown
to Europe, as those of any nation in the centre
of Africa,
‘—Res alt rerrA et caligine mersas.
Enough, however, has transpiréd, and enough
may be clearly inferred from known political ef-
fects, to. prove that the negro bondage, to the
great characteristics of which I have called
your attention, exists no more in those Colonies.
The negroes are no longer the property of a
master, transferable at his will; he is no longer
the uncontrouled assessor of their labour, and of
the returns to be given for it by himself; and
by whatever sanctions public or private, indus-
try may be enforced, the cultivators are certainly
not worked as formerly, under the lash of a
driver.
All the accounts, such as we have, which pro-
fess to give information of the new system, are
thus far unanimous.
They generally also sabia the negroes of St.
Domingo, as living for the most part in great
indolencz; and agriculture, except so far as
respects the easy culture of coffee and pro-
visions, as being in a very languishing state ;
a description which pretty clearly imports
the absence of the driver, and of the au-
thority of private owners, Nor do such ac-
Gounts admit of stronger confirmation than that
which
[ 16 ]
which arisés from the state of the exports of
that once flourishing colony ; which though said
of late to have greatly encreased, have since the
Revolution, been insignificantly small when
compared to their former extent.
From the regulations respecting “eld labour,
published by Toussaint in October 1800, the same
inferences, as to the new condition of the negroes,
may undeniably be drawn; since for the purpose
of enforcin > industry, the fear of military punish-
ments is in every casé, made the substitute for the
former coercion ;.and a labourer refusing to work,
is, by these regulations, made liable to be arrest-
ed, and punished asa military deserter. But this
punishment is not to be inflicted by the private
master or by the drivers, who though they retain
their name, are evidently disarmed of their whips,
for the offenders are directed to be carried before
the military commandant, (see articles 2 and 7
nf this curious ordinance in the Appendir.)
From the smaller Island of Guadaloupe, and
from Cayenne, our intelligence is rather more sa-
tisfactory and distinct. That these Colonies have
by no means been left uncultivated there is a like
uniformity of report; and the truth of it is
proved by the considerable export trade which
they maintained with neutral nations down to
the end of the war; though there is great dis-
cordance between different accounts, ag to the
quantity.
vorts of
gh said
nce the
| when
labour,
he same
vegroes,
putpose
punish-
e for the
to work,
arrests
But this
private
ry retain
whips,
d before
2 and 7
are)
pe, and
more.sa-
ies have
isa like
e f it is
2 which
jown to
eat dis-
to the
wantity.
‘ig
L ir }
quaitity of their exported produce in ¢otnpari-
son with its former amount. If a late report on
the colonies published by the French govern-
ment nay be credited, Cayenne, in an agricul-
tural, as well as commercial view, never was
in a more flourishing state; and representations
equally favourable are given of Guadaloupe, by
persons who found their opinions on private
information respecting its exports ta North
America. But these estimates are I doubt not,
greatly too large, especially in the latter case;
and it seems more probable that Gaudaloupe does
not at present produce one half, perhaps not much
more than one third, of its average crop of sugar
and coffee anterior to the revolution. To assign
reasons for this opinion would be a useless digres-
sion, for the fact is not material to my argument.
As it is notorious that in both the latter
colonies considerable quantities of produce are
raised, negro labour cannot be wholly disconti-
nued: But that this labour is obtained by other
means than the agency of the driver, is a fact
established by the agreement of every report,
public or private, direct of circuitous, with which
{am acquainted ; and as [ shall speedily shew,
is confirmed by still stronger and less resistible
evidence, :
As the new state of the negroes both at. Gua-
-daloupe ‘and Cayenne was introduced by the
c government,
J
government, it was also defined by positive law,
at the time of its introduction. You will find
in the Appendix, a translation both of the con-
ventiynal decree for enfranchising the slaves in
the colonies, and of the proclamation with which
was accompanied, when published by the French
commissioners at Point Pitre in July 1794.
The negroes were by this law expressly released.
from slavery, and invested with all the rights of
French citizens, and though industry was en-
joined as a duty, the declared objects of that
duty were themselves, their families, and the
state, and not any particular master or em-
ployer. If it was intended that the new rela-
tions of stipendiary servant and master, should
be formed between them and the same planters
whose property they formerly had been, which
does not clearly appear, the latter were at least
required to give them a competent salary in re-
turn for their work.
In a word, they were placed, as far as an ex-
press law could place them, in the condition of
English labourers; though perhaps obliged to
work on a particular estate *.
From
* If reports prevalent in the Leeward Islands soon after this
revolution were accurate, the limitation toa particular estate was
the rule only in respect of such negroes as either could fot or
would
ve law,
rill find
he con-
laves in
1 which
French
Ly
released
ights of
was en-
of that
and the
or em-
ew rela-
should
planters
which
at least
y in re-
5 aN CX-
ition of
ged to
From
after this
estate was
Id fot or
would
4 ‘It was, indeed but too manifestly proved by
[f 19 J
From the language of the French government
in 1794, it would I admit be rash to infer its
real and permanent designs. But Victor Hugues
was not in a condition to violate with impu-
nity his engagements to the negroes of Gua-
daloupe: By the sole aid of these newly-cre-
ated citizens and. soldiers, he was enabled to.
| re-conquer that valuable coluny; and solely by
their fidelity and zeal could he hope to defend
it during the war, against the unresisted mas-
” ters of the seas. He was obliged therefore by
| political necessity to adhere to the promises |
on the faith of which they had joined him ; and
| that he did in good earnest establish and maintain
) their freedom was well known, to the terror of
' the British planters in all the adjacent islands,
| the astonishing effects which followed; espe-
cially inthe disastrous era, of the insurrections in
| St. Vincent’s and Grenada. The freedom of the,
#) negroes alone, and their zealous attachment to
i the government, not only made this little terri-
| tory impregnable, but enabled Victor Hugues
to pour from it, as from a volcano, terror,and
‘@ devastation around him,
would not employ themselves industriously upon some other
| plantation of their own choice. But the fact is not very mate.
jp ‘ial to my argument, and I wish not to overstate the extent of
this revolution in any point, but. rather where the case is
doubtful, to lean to the other side,
That
[ 20 ]
That industry which the law enjoined, he
found from causes shortly to be noticed, not
easy to be enforced. In a great degree, he
was probably cbliged to acquiesce in the neg-
lect of it; and if reports spread in the neigh-
bouring British colonies in’ 1795 deserve cre-
dit, he did not obtain the degree of agricul-
tural labour that was yielded in the mfancy
ef his new system without resorting to the
utmost severities of military discipline, treating
the incorrigibly idle as mutineers, and punish-
ing some of them with death, as examples to the
rest.
' Such reports are however liable to much suspi-
cion; for never certainly were there sronger por
pular motives to blacken the character of an ene-
my, than thase which prompted the tongue of
fame at that period against Victor Hugues, and
his system of government, among his West In-
dian neighbours.
I do not wish to be his apologist, for he seems
to have been a ferocious and unprincipled cha-
racter; but it is unlikely that his black troops’
would contentedly be the instruments of such se-
verity on their brethren; and there is no satis-
factory evidence of any such exécutions.
The fact however if it existed, proves the truth
of my proposition: for if recourse was had to
such severe measures, they were acts of public,
not of private, authority, and were substitutes
for
ined, he
ced, not
gree, he
the neg-
e neigh-
rve cre-
agricul-
-mfancy
r to the
treating
| punish-
les to the
ch suspi-
nger por
f an ene-
bngue of
es, and
est In-
he seems
led cha-
k troops’
such se-
© satis-
he truth
s had to
f public,
bstitutes
for
{ a ]
“) for the power of the master, and the coercion of
the driver’s lash.
2k At the same time, the prevalence of such a ru-
mour whether true or false in the neighbouring
islands, some of which lie within sight of the
shores of Guadaloupe, evinces that the general
change in the condition ef the French negroes
“% was there notorious. It wis the indolence pro-
4 duced by that change that was supposed to
7 have demanded, or from the brutality of Hugues
“) to have received, so rigorous a species of cor-
_) rection.
| From thesilence of report as to opposite facts,
an inference still more convincing’ may be drawn.
‘» It never has been alleged to my knowledge,
”) and during eight years which have elapsed since
‘) the express. enfranehisement in question my
) attention has been alive to the subject, it has
>) never been the topic of rumour public or private,
)% that negroes have been seen at Guadaloupe or
a » Cayenne, working under the whip of the driver.
This in its nature is not a fact which if
“)}) it existed could escape observation, By thou-
4 sands of Americans and other neutral persons
4 resorting to those colonies, and by very many
British who have been carried thither as. pii-
| soners of war, negroes must have been often
@ seen at work; and even from the decksof the
® British and other vessels coasting along’ the
shore of Guadaloupe, they must frequently have
been
[ 22 ]
been observed, had they worked in gangs ‘as
formerly, with the drivers very distinguishable
in the rear.
Isit then to be imagined that a fact so decisive
of the re-establishment or continuance of the old
system, ‘would not have been announced’ in our
Islands, and from thence to the British public?
Surely Sir, I need not remind you how large
a stake our West India fellow subjects have, or
think they have, in the public opmions on these
matters; or ask you to reflect how much and
how naturally the example of the revolutions in
the French Islands excited their alarms! “A mo-
ment’s consideration ‘therefore will convince
you,- that the total failure of an experiment
the final success of which must beat once dan-
gerous and opprobrious to the system they
fondly support, would have been eagerly and
triumphantly announced : ‘nor could the obvious
policy have been overlooked of trumpeting in
the ears of the English negroes the restoration
of the cart-whip at Guadaloupe. |
To my mind, this negative argument is a
stronger proof than the testimony of a hundred
witnesses of what I am warranted by the result
of much private enquiry to believe, that a ne-
gro driver is no longer to be seen in these co-
lonies,
Of positive details even respecting the new
system, we are not wholly ynprovided.
! The
S$ as
lable
‘isive
eold
1 our
dlic’?
large
e, Or
these
and
ns in
| mo-
vince
ment
dan-
‘they
rand
vious
ig in
ation,
is @
ndred
result
a ne-
@ COs
new
The
re 2
[ 23 ]
-. The return to be made to the negroes of a
plantation coliectively for their annual labour,
was fixed by Victor Hugues at one-third of
the value: of the produce. This was also the
general law at Cayenne, and, if I rightly re-
member, at ‘St.: Domingo; though laws have
scarcely had any operation in that distracted
Island. Another third was allotted to the owner;
and the rest to the Republic.
- According to other accounts, the remaining
third was to supply the expences of the estate;
which seems the,most probable, because without
a provision for ‘these, the owner’s share would
have been exhausted’ in sustaining them, and
the share of the Republic would have been too
palpably enormous. But, perhaps, the contradic-
iction ‘may be explained by the fact, that both
at Guadaloupe and St. Domingo, a great propor-
tion of the estates were by forfeiture or seques-
tration, inthe hands of the government.
Nothing obviously could be more inconve-
nient, than so precarious and distant a remune-
ration for labour as a share of a West India
crop, to men who must live by their daily la-
bour; it was, therefore, speedily improved by
Victor Hugues, into an allowance, either by
way of commutation or advance, payable pe-
riodically to each labourer; and this he origin-
ally fixed at such a number of livres per week,
as considering the great scarcity of specie in the
colony,
[ 2 }
colony, was atolerably ample subsistence, I think
jt was nine livres,
As fay as private enquiry has enabled me to form
a judgment of the fact, the rate of wages both.
there and at Cayenne has since been fixed from
time to time by the Government; which has also
exercised an jntimate superintendance and con-
troul both over the masters and the plantation
negroes, obliging the latter to labour, as well as
the former to give what is deemed a sufficient
support.
The regime by which these ends are accom:
plished, is wholly military ; and refractoriness.in
the negroes is punished when necessary, not by’
the master, or at his discretion, but by the order
of a public officer or court,
That authoritative information on these points
cannot be obtained, is much to be regretted, I.
might appeal, however to. proclamations of the
executive authority at Guadaloupe, and those
of Toussaint, as well as of the Commissioners
and agents of the French Government at, St,.
Domingo, in fuyther proof, that industry how-.
ever regulated, is now considered as a duty to
be inculcated by persuasion, or enforced, by the
sanctions of municipal law aided by a military
police, and not @ mere physical effect to be ex-
cited by the application of the lash.
T allude here to papers with which you, Sit,
and every reader must be familiar, as they have
often
think
form
both.
from
3 also
con-=
ation
ell as
cient
Come
ess.in
[ 25 ]
often been published in our daily prints. They
contain strong expostulations against the vice
of indolence, and earnest invitations to agricul-
tural industry, as essential both to public and
private happiness. Now such addresses from the
governors to the governed, do not more clearly
prove indolence to be a prevalent bad habit in
the community, than they demonstrate the total
subversion of the old system in all its funda-
mental parts. Such a proclamation if address-
ed to the negroes in an English West India
Island, could only be considered as an imperti-
nent interference with the authority of the mas-
ter, and the interior discipline of his plantation ;
asa reflection on the activity of the drivers, and
a.cruel mockery of the slaves,
Perhaps Sir, you may think that I am press-
ing this point with more assiduity than it re-
quiyes.. To the well informed in West India af-
fairs, it is certainly unnecessary to prove the
tre nature of the revolutions in question > but
a great majority of the public, being ignorant
as I have alieady observed, of the distinguish -
ing character of negro-bondage, is of course
liable to much imposition and mistake in judg-
ing of those revolutions by which that bondage
has been abolished, and of the important changes
which have been produced: and advantage has
been taken of this circumstance to propagate
2)
-
[ 26 ]
in the public mind errors which may be of dan-
_gerous consequence.
.'It.is curious enough to observe in how loose
and unintelligent a manner, persons even of ge-
neral political. knowledge, ‘will express them-
selves on this’ subject. Since the recent insur-
rection in Guadaloupe for instance, it has been
often said in the best. conducted public prints,
that the negroes had “declared for freedom :”
that “they had demanded their liberty: from
“ their masters;” &c, and it has been called
*¢ a revolt of the slaves.”
That the cause of that remarkable insurrection
was an attempt of Lacrosse under the orders of
Buonaparte, to restore the old system of slavery,
I shall hereafter offer some reasons’ for believing :
But it is singular, that in the year 1802, the
slavery of the negroes:of that: Island’ should be
spoken of sin London’ newspapers ‘as a” state
from which they had never emerged, and: the
chains of. which they were — oe to
break.
Unhappily in this, asin tine cases,’ the am-
biguity of language is fatal to the cause of
truth. The great and recent abuses of the terms,
“liberty and freedom,” ‘slavery and bond-
“age,” have given them a meaning in European
ears widely different from their genuine poli-
tical import; but reper more distant still
! from
f dan-
7 loose
of ge-
them-
insur-
s been
prints,
lom :”
from
called
ction
lers Of
avery,
Ving :
2, the
ld be
» state
d- the
ng to
2 am-
se of
erms,
bond-
Dpean
poli-
still
from
{ 27 ]
from what they are practically felt to imply in
the West Indies. There are no proper and
peculiar ‘names to distinguish the state of the
negro in bondage, from his enfranchised con-
dition. We, therefore call him in the one
state a slave; in the other, a freeman; and
the European is not aware that the distinc-
tion has no similitude to those which have oc-
casioned so many important, and so many
foolish quarrels, in his own quarter of the globe ;
that it has no affinity with aristocracy on the
one hand, or with democracy on the other;
with Jacobinism, or with Anti-jacobinism; that
it immeasurably transcends in its importance
to.the individual, the most; extreme differences
known in Europe, in» the ‘degrees of, muni-
cipal freedom or restraint; between the: most fa-
voured, and least fortunate people; between the
peasant of England,:andthe peasant of. Russia ;
that it is in,truth, little short of the whole dif-
ference between brutal.and:rational nature,
Hence the necessity.of fixing, if I was able,
with precision, | the'trye nature of that condition
inadequately. defined. by the term slavery from
which the French negroes have passed, and. its
essential difference from that to which they
have attained, ,
Having accomplished I trust that. prelim-
_ inary. task, as fay as‘ consists with the plan and
the necessary limits of this address, I proceed
to
[ % J
to offer my reasons for suspecting that a coun»
ter-revolution in the state of the enfranchised
negroes, is the main object of France in her
West India expedition.
The great and urgent motive by which the
counsels of the Republic may be presumed to
be prompted in regard to the West Indies, is an
impatient wish to restore the agricultural and
commercial value of her colonies.
The monoply of the European sugar markets
by her great rival, is a disadvantage not patient-
by to be borne. The restoration of her marine too
in point of comparative importance camot be
hoped for, while 4 nursery so great as West India
navigation, is nearly lost to her, and possessed
almost exclusively by Great Britain. Not does
her revenue, less. than her maritime interests,
demand the recovery of her colonial resources
in all their former magnitude;
But in the sugar colonies of Franée; especi-
ally in that: whose former importance eclips-
ed all the rest united, and the extent of which
has been vastly increased by the cession of
Spanish St. Domingo, negro liberty seems to
‘be an insuperable obstacle to all these great and.
necessary views,
While the negroes were in bondage, that co~
lony was rich and: flourishing by the effects of
their labour; since their enfranchisement, it haw
| become
coun
thised
n her
h the
ed to
is an
| and
tkets
ient-
e too
ot be
India
essed
does
rests,
nrceyx
[ 29 ]
become comparatively almost a neglected waste,
All the solicitations of the officers of the Re-
public, all the influence and authority of their
own favorite Chiefs, have failed to recall them
to any tolerabie degree of regular industry.
What then remains, but either to restore the
rigid yoke of the private master, and renew the
coercion of the cart-whip, or permanently to
leave this fine Island in its present unprofitable
state?
Thus it appears at first sight not nnnatural
for the Chicf Consul to reason. Perhaps, in-
deed it may appear in the sequel that such a
counter-revolution will not easily be effected ;
and that if effected, it would not durably restore
the prosperity of the Colony. But this if not
the surest, is at least the shortest, course : the ne-
cessities of the republic are urgent, and nations,
as well as individuals,
—S¢ Often strike their dearest wish far off,
Through ardor to possess it.”
Besides, it is not consonant with the charac-:
ter of the Chief Consul to be deterred by dif-
ficulties: he delights in a rapid dazzling at-
chievement: the tardy triumphs of a cautious
policy, are not congenia} to his temper, and may
arrive too late to consolidate his power, or to
feast his appetite for fame. |
Numerous
[ so ]
Numerous and powerful private interests too
may probably concur with his own, and the ap-
parent interests of the republic, ‘in demanding
from Buonaparte the re-establishmcat of the
former system.
The planters of the French Islands were not
only a very numerous and opulent: body antece-
dently to the revolution, but so many of them
had been ennobled, and so many of the ancient
noblesse had either acquired estates in the Colo-
nies, or intermarried with the. families of opu-
lent Creoles, that they possessed among the
highest orders, as well as in the commercial cir-
cles, a very extensive influence.
Their poweg and interest have no doubt been
in great ineasure lost by the general ruin of
their fortunes; very few of them, ex-:ept at
Cayenne, and in the Islands conquered by Great
Britain, having escaped confiscation and exile.
Their counter-revolutionary principles, must
also, have contributed previously to the govern-
ment of Buonaparte, to destroy their weight in
the republic. But the conciliatory system of the
Chief Consul has recalled from exile a great
part of this unfortunate body, who, as far as
can be collected, are friendly to his authority,
and he, if not partial to.them as a particular
description of royalists, is at least disposed to
protect and favor them asa branch of that nu-
merous party. If report may be credited, he is
vi even
[ 31 ]
even ccnnected with them by marriage, Madan
Buonaparte being as it is said, of a Creole fa-
mily, and. intitled to a plantation in one of ‘the
French Windward Islands.
The desire of conciliating a body of men,
powerful by their numbers and connections, and
formidable to a new government even by the
desperate circumstances to which they are re-
duced, may concur with other and more genereus
motives to engage the Chief Consul in the
enterprise of reinstating the planters in their
estates.
But how can_ this work be acramtislee con-
sistently with the freedom of the negroes? To,
give back the land, without the means of its culti-
vation, would be amockery, rather than a benefit.
Are then the former slaves, and their issue
born or grown up to puberty during ten years
that have succeeded the Revolution, t> be
sent back to the plantations to which they for-
metly belonged, and obliged to work thereon as
free labourers without whe presence of the
drivers, ?
I shall presently have occasion to shew the for-
midable difficulties, of reducing such a project
into practice. But let us. suppose it accomplished,
and enquire how it would affect *4e master,
Between hii and these unwilling servants,
mutual distrust and hatred would, in most cases
o 2 high degree prevail. They have driven him
into
[ 2]
into exile, and laid waste his property pethaps
have shed the blood of some of his'dearest rela-
tives, during the horrors of the Revolution;
and though to the satisfactory renewal of any
intimate civil connection whatever between
them these are serious obstacles, they are
peculiarly adverse to the forming a relation
hitherto untried, to the success of which reci-
procal confidence and goodwill would be pecu |
liarly requisite: .
The stern system that was overthrown asked
for no such confidence; appealed to no feelings
of the heart for its security; but was perfectly
compatible with mutual distrust and detestation.
If therefore this sytem could be renewed, and
the authority of the drivers sustained against the
new character of the negroes by the energies of
the state; the master might again hope to sleep
in safety on his plantation, and carry on its bu-
siness with effect. But I doubt whether a single
individual could be found among the exiled
planters, hardy enough to be desirous of regain-
ing his property at the peril of. residing among
his former slaves, and holding the loosened
reins of such private authority as might be found
compatible with their freedom.
I here suppose the negroes to be obliged to la-
bour exclusively for the former owner, or, upon
the estate to which they formerly belonged,
like the Adseryptt Gleba, in many ancient and
even
-— fF 02-f ee rw Feebh sm ac...
thaps
p rela-
tiON ;
f any
tween
r are
‘lation
1 reci-
pecu |
asked
selings
rfectly
I 9s ]
éven. modern ¢ountries,,and the: manorial , vil-
fains among our: ancéstors in this: island, But
were it proposed: to teave them at. ‘freedetn to
choose their. master, and the master: to choose
from the common stock the labourers he would
employ, though the preceding objections would
indeed. be im some pointe lessened, other: and
more formidable diffieulties Would aride,
The planter’s fortune and credit would in that
case be inrecoverably itipuited % thé extent at
least of the full value of the negroes onee be-
longing to him; in whom he would ne longer —
Assess any species of property; and it ~~ sud be
ivit to depend on his success in the competition
for setvants, whether his plantation ¢ould imme.
diately be brought into culture ot not. -
Credit: was necessary to him eveit in his formet
flourishing circumstances; but where could hé
obtein it now? A mérchent would perhaps, not
be very prompt on any ters’ to embark hid
éapital, on an ocean hitherto unexplored, with 4
view to any precarious returns to. be expected from
the le’. of free negroes: But if the owner
hap: tote in has for ever lost the value of his
nine péenetty is diminished by this reduc-
tion one third: in its vale, over and above all
other. losses ‘and deteriorations by revolutioty
ded war. Fn receiving back the land despoited
of. Ws works and: buildings, and’ of all the:stockt
Reve: ary for’ its ee without any renewed
property
[ 34 ]
property. in the negroes, it would be a high esti-
mate to say that he would be re-instated in two
fifths of his former fortune; and let those who —
know the ordinary circumstances of West India
estates, determine what relief planters in general
would derive from such a partial restitution !
Unless their former situations were widely dif-
ferent indeed from that of their English bre-
thren, the Consul by such an act of justice
might confer indeed some benefit on the unfor-
tunate Srron or mortgagees, but cer tainly
none at allon;: ~icnter himself.
How then in i: .s case could new credit be
obtained? or how without credit are the works
to be rebuilt, and all the stock and costly imple-
ments to be supplied? Destitute of these, a sugar
plantation would be like the cup of Tantalus to
its unfortunate owner.
It seems probable for these and other reasons,
that with all the difficulty of the attempt to re-
establish the master’s property in his negroes, and
absolute authority over them, nothing less will
satisfy the West Indian party in France. How-
ever hazardous the game, it is the only one that
the Creole proprietor can play, with a chance of
redeeming for his own benefit any part of the
stake. )
_ Ifwe attend to the language and conduct: of
the Chief Consul, since peace with this com.try,
put him in a. situation to attempt to regulate the
transmarineé
| esti-
n two
> who ©
India
eneral
ition !
y dif-
h bree
justice
unfor-
rtainly
edit be
works
imple-
a sugar
alus to
easons,
to re-
es, and
ess will
How-
ne that
ance of
of the
ut of
oOutry,
ate the
marine
{ 3 ]
‘tranismarine interests of France, we shall find no
reason to disbelieve that these considerations
have had a decisive influence on his counsels.
Inan elaborate report upon the situation of the
republic, presented by him to the legislative
body, and published in the Moniteur of Novem-
ber 24th, he thus expresses himself’ respecting
the West India colonies: ‘‘ In the West, Gua-
“+ duloupe ‘has preserve. a share of its agricul-
“ture and prosperity, &c. In St. Domingo,
“ some irregular acts have excited fears, &c.
“In these two islands there are no more slaves ;
“all ARE FREE; AND $0 THEY SHALL REMAIN.
“In Martinique, a different policy has been
“ pursued: thé practice of SLAVERY HAS BEEN
“THERE CONTINUED, AND IT MUST BE PRE-
“seRVED, Jt would cost too much to humanity,
"to attempt there a new revolution. Guyana,
“ and the Isles of France and of Reunion, have
** been faithful to the Republic, and kave pros-
“ pered, though under feeble, and uncertain ad-
_ © ministrations.”
Ifany man can read this language, and retain
@ doubt whether Buonaparte’s views are inimical
or not to negro freedom, let him recollect that
Guadaloupe and St. Domingo were colonies
in which the avowal of such an enmity would:
have united all hearts and hands in opposition
the arms of the Republic, at that critical mo-
ment when the armaments were just departing
from
{ 36 } |
from her harbours; and that respecting Marti«
nique there could be no motive. for. dissimula-
tion. in either case, because Gréat Britain. was
bound to restore that. island peaceably to his
possession and authority. _ The French planters
eould certainly not offer a moment’s opposition
to whatever measures the Consular government.
might think fit to adopt, especially if'such mea-
sures were of a nature popular among the slaves.
. But if the Consul was sincere in his language
as to this island; what principle, moral or poli-
tical, can make the sincerity of his. promise to
the negroes of abbgeareaae worthy of a mo-
ment’s.credit?
To: maintain two. vehi opposite: eens: ir
islands. within sight of each other, would be not
more preposterous than imr ‘«ticable.. The. pre-
tence seems.almost too gr 3s: for the: blunt intel-
lects. of the poor beings whom it was intended:
to cajole.
But the emphatic silence as to the system in~
tended for Cayenne or Guyana, makes the hypo~
crisy of this paper still more flagrant.
It is notorious that the negroes, of that co-
lony were in the same free condition with that
of their brethren in Guadaloupe; and that their
enfrauchisement had been. repaid. by fidelity to
the Republic the.Consul himself acknowledges.
In fact their freedom aloz: could have averted.
the conquering arms of Great Britain; for an
expedition
Marti«
simula-
in. was
to his
planters:
yosition
rnment.
ch mea-
2 slaves.
nguage
or poli-
ynise to
" @ mo-
tems. iIT
1 be not
Fhe. pre-
nt intel-
ntended'
stem in
e hypo-
that co-
rith that.
ne their.
lelity to
wledges.
averted
; for an
pedition
[ 37 ]
expedition was actually meditating against the
settlement, when thedecree of enfranchisement
arrived and made it impregnable. :
That the colony has prospered under the new
order of things this state paper also admits.
Yet no engagement is made to maintain negro
liberty in Guyana: onthe contrary, it is spoken
of in the same breath, and in the same manner,
with the Isles of France and Bourbon, or Re-
union, where the condition of the slaves has
never been altered.
If it be asked why the-same dissimulation
was not necessary in regard to Cayenne as is
supposed to have been practised towards the
two other colonies, I answer, because it con
tained at the time:of its revolution only about
15,000 slaves; while; Guadaloupe had 100,000,
and St. Domingo half a million*.
: There
® By an official return made to the National Assembly of
France, in 1790 St Domingo contained 480,000 slaves, and
24,848 free people of colour, In the same year 34,840
African slaves were imported. When, therefore, we add the
forther imports prior to the Revolution, and the many thou. .
sands of Guinea negroes captured in British, slave-ships, and
carried into the ports of that island during the war, we may
after much allowance for the ravages of the sword, and with.
. Out reckoning on any extraordinary increase by births, from
the effects of the new system, or including the negroes of
Spanish St. Domingo, reasonably suppose the island now to
Contain 500,000 negroes or persons of negro extraction. In
estimating
[ 38 ]
There was perhaps some further security
agaist resistance in this case; for if a recent
ublicaijon of the French government deserves
eredi+, ¢ would seem that Victor Hugues, the
able and versatile agent of France, must have
already effected at Cayenne some changes fa-
vourable to the restitution of the old system;
but if so, his work will probably not be perma-
nent *. ,
Were the nature and causes of the recent re-
volution in Guadaloupe fairly before the pub-
lic, the Chief Consul’s West India policy would
perhaps be more clearly disclosed.
All we know of that remarkable event war-
rants the suspicion that Zacrosse, a governor
lately sent from France, had attempted changes
hostile to the freedom of the negroes. He ar-
rived at Guadaloupe in the month of June last,
with two frigates, and about 600 veteran troops ;
estimating the number of negroes enfranchised by the Revo-
lution, at Gyadaloupe, 1 include the negroes of the small de.
pendent Islands of Marigalante and the Saintes, and believe
the estimate is too low. _
* The paper alluded to neatly insinuates that the African
slave trade had actually been restored in Guyana, by speaking
of the imports of negroes as a proof of the growing prosperity
of the Colony, but without directly noticing any change of
system by which the trade had been legally revived. It ig
very observable, however, that though Victor Hugues’s dis-
patches are referred to for this and other important particulars,
np copy or extract fom those dispatches is published,
and
security
recent
HeSErves
es, the
st have
ges fa-
system ;
perma-
ent re-
e pub-
would
t war-
pvernor
shanges
He ar-
ne last,
troops ;
he Revo.
small de.
d believe
: African
speaking
rosperity
hange of
l. It ig
es’s dis.
rticulars,
and
[ s9 ]
and immediately set on foot interior changes,
of which a known immediate effect was
that of inducing many planters who were
in exile in the neighbouring islands to return
to their estates.
What those changes specifically were, he and
the French Government have not thought
proper to inform the European world. But
dispatches and proclamations of this governor
officially published in France in October last
imported that he was introducing some impor-
tant novelties in the interior administration ;
and though the true nature of these was veiled
in obscure generalities, it was evident enough,
that to enforce greater industry in the lower
orders, and to draw tighter the cords of autho-
rity over them, were main objects of the pro-
jected reformation.
It was therefore very remarkable that. no
saloo in favour of freedom, nor any protest
against the restitution of the former bondage,
was to be found in these papers. The evident
liability to suspicion in those points of all such.
acts of government in the free-negro colonies,
had made the most solemn protestations of ad-
herence to the principle of freedom invariable.
accompaniments of every former law and pro-
clamation on like subjects; but on this occa»
sion they were wholly omitted.
When with so striking a circumstanee we
: connect,
[ 40]
connect the speedy eyent, we shall have jittle
difficulty to determine the general character of
Lacrosse’s improvements. Within two months
after his arrival there was, a dangerous. insur+
rection against him; and though he alledged
in: his ‘dispatches, published in the Moniteur of
December 8,. that the commotion was speedily
stifled, srid that he could answer for the, tran-
quillity of: the Colony, it. was before the end
ofthat month ‘known in ‘this, country, that he
had: been: driven from his government, and all
the white inhabitants at the same time expelled
or imprisoned.
This. Colony for eight years of war lieedlia
his. arrival had been faithful to the Republi¢, and
undisturbed: by civil commations: innovations
the most extreme that ever changed the civil
destiny of man had not materially disturbed
its internal peace: the negrees had submitted
implicitly to isuccessive governors; and had
even seen the popular founder of their. freedom
Victor Hugues, seized in their port by stratagena
and sent a prisoner to Fran¢e, by the authority
of the Republic, yet were: obedient and loyal
to his successor. But Lacrosse’s unknown mear
sures, urged them at once into a general and
successful rebellion ; and by the latest accounts
they: continued to set at defiance the authority
of France, notwithstanding the knowledge that
the sea'was now open to her arms.
| These
= _* -at ete a ar‘
[ 41 ]
‘These facts Sir, are impressive, and I —
your close attention to them.
They not.only serve to paint the true ‘views
of Buonaparte in the West, but indicate pretty
elearly what measure of resistance awaits him. |
» To all these indications of a general design
adverse to the freedom of the negroes, may be
added the magnitude of the armament: itself.
That the sending out 95 sail of the line, and-
£25,000 troops, merely to extort from Toussaint .
a submission which he had not yet refused to
the authority of the Republic, was an effort dis-
proportionate to such an object, cannot well be
denied ; and let it be remembered that when this
great armament was: dispatched from France,
Guadaloupe was supposed to be in a state of
tranquil submission to the Mother Country*.
I do not with some persons suspect that the
designs of Buonaparte in this expedition are
treacherous and hostile to Gre ¢ Britain; but it
is because I conclude that he has in view an en-
terprize much more extensive and arduous than
to obtain the recognition of his authority from
Toussaint. |
~
* Various accounts have lately been published, on what
authority I know not, of very considerable further armaments
having been recently dispatched to the West Indies from the
ports of France, aud those.of her allies or dependants.
_ As
[ 42 ]
As far then as the intentions of France can be
inferred from the various indications which have
been noticed, conjecture is uniformly guided to
the same point, a design to restore in St. Do-
mingo, Guadaloupe, and Cayenne, the old species
of bondage. That this is her true aim has been
shewn to be probable, from the inevitable tardi-
ness of any othsr expedient to restore her:co~
lonial agriculture, and from the repugnance of
delay as well to the genius of the Consul, as to
the pressing exigencies of the state. It has
been shewn to be + obable also, from the inte-
rests and unquestionable wishes of a large and
powerful body of men in the Republic whom
Buonaparte must be desirous to conciliate; and
the probability appears to be greatly strengther -
ed, by the language he has publicly used, by the
measures of his chosen governors in the West
Indies, and by the magnitude of those military
preparations the object of which I have. at-
tempted to explore.
Iam, &c, &c,
can be
‘h have
ided to
§t. Do-
species
as been
2 tardi-
her: co-
nce of
, as to
It has
le inte-~
pe and
whom
e; and
gther "
by the
2 West
ilitary
ive. at-
LETTER IL
Sir,
I eroroszp in the se-
cond place to enquire, what consequences in-
teresting to Great Britain are likely to result
‘om the depending West India enterprise of
one Republic?
In the course of that enquiry, to ae we
now proceed, the justice of those important
views which it is: my wish to unfold, will not
be found entirely to depend on the truth of the
conclusion which it was attempted in the pre-
ceding letter to establish. |
For the purpose of determining more clearly
the most probable immediate effects of the ex-
pedition, I shall indeed'assume in the first place,
that its object is such as has been inferred ; but
shall afterwards consider the result of a contrary
hypothesis; and shall réason to no ultimate or
prac-
[ 4]
practical conclusions, but such as will Le found
fairly to arise from the premises already laid
down, or remaining to be adduced, if those
premises were true in point of fact, - whatever
may be at this i ssaaa the on designs of the
Chief Consul. rn
This branch of the waibieve naturally resolves
itself into two distinct, th closely allied,
considerations. si
First. The probable i issue oF the Expedition
in the French Colonies. Seconnry. The ef-
Sects its success or failure are likely to produce
in the British West India Islands.
- Within a very short period, probably before
these sheets whicis I am now penning can issue
from che press, the arrival and the first effects
of the armament in question will be known in
Europe.
They will probably’ be represented in the
most favourable colours; and it is most likely
that without the aid of exeggeration, they will
be such as to give app1rently a strong assurance
of ultimate success. The towns and forts ‘on
the coast of St. Domingo will probably be con-
quered with great facility; perhaps, will offer
no resistance; especially if the fleet and
army should not ‘be divided or retarded in
their progress after their arrival at the Wind-
ward Islands, by necessary operations against
Guadaloupe.
Appear-
MduUce
efore
issue
[ 45 ]
Appearances still more promising :nay possibly
m:tk the dawn of this interesting en<erprise.
Toussaint. may submit; or if not, it will be
an easy game for the Generals of the French
army to avail themselves of the discord said al-
ready to prevail among the negroes of that Co-
lony, or to scatter the seeds of new dissentions,
so.as to gain over some of their most powerful
leaders, and considerable bodies of their troops.
It is possible even, that by specious promises
of a well regulated freedom a general sulmis-
sion'to the authority of the Republic may be
speedily obtained ; and thus the whole work may
appear to be at once accomplished.
And may not this success be real and perma-
nent; as. well as speedy? Certainly it. may, if the -
views of the French Governmert. ended here,
and. nothing more were desired. than, the politi-
cal subordination. of the colony to the parent
state. But. if the submission of the negroes be
oaly, as. i conclude, an..object preliminary to
' ae, more arduous task of restoring che former
bondage, the work. after all the ruccesses here
supposed, will barely iuave commenced. The
new foundation even will not have been firmly
laid, when to the Eurupean eye the whole edi-
fice may appear to be re-built.
It is when the true design shall. be avowed,
or begin to unfeld itself: when the negroes shall
discover, that not to. the fasves of. the Consul
only, but to the whip of the driver, their sub-
mission
[ 46 ]
aaission is demanded; when the tnaster shalt
take possession of his estate, and the bell. and
the loud report of the drivers’ whip, announcing
the approach of dawn, shall summon them again
to the field; it is then, that the arduous nature
of the undertaking will be felt; and that the
Republic will find like Great Britain, the dif-.
ference between subduing the coast, and ruling
the interior, of this extensive Island; between,
gaining the chiefs, and coercing the new form-
ed people. .
To estimate more clearly the practicability
of the supposed design, let us consider briefly,
first, the motives, and next, the means of resist-\
ance.
That on a state of bondage such as has beert
here generally described the enfranchised slave
must cast his eye back with aversion and horror,
cannot be doubted. We may be apt to place upon
the distinctions of political freedom or restraint
known in Europe, more than a reasonable value;
but they shrink to nothing, when compared
with the unspeakable difference between the
terms “slave and free,” in the colonies,
If men think the limitation of Royal Prero-
gative, worth the miseries and the blood, which
its defence has sometimes cost, when accord-
ing tothe °t, :
6¢ Of all the ills the human race endure,
«¢ How small a pact that kings can cause or cure |’?
What
nas FF meat A
f ar j
What energies are not likely to be called forth,
what desperate struggles to be made, in defexd-
ing not only private property, but the very
capacity of possessing it; in defending a man’s
title to his own muscles and sinews; in main-
‘ taining the common privileges not merely of
social, but of rational nature ! !
Is it objected, ** They have once submit-
“ ted without resistance to such bondage, and
‘“* why net again?” T answer, it was antecedent
to their experience of the yoke, and of the possi-
bility of breaking it.
They were trained to the state from infancy
without knowledge of a better; or were “ sea-
“‘ soned to. it, as the term is, when dejected and
helpless exiles, in a land of novelty and wonder;
when every feature of authority was armed by
superstitious terrors, and the gener.'] reverential
submission of all the fellow bondsmen among
whom they were placed, contagiously strengthen-
ed their awe of the superior being whom ‘hey
were taught to call master. Yet even in this
“ seasoning,” many perished by the resistance
of nature to the yoke; and not a few eluded it
by suicide.
Renovation of this bondage after enfranchise-
ment from it, is.a work ihe practicability of
which remains to be proved by experience; for’
‘by the laws of the West Indies the manumitted
negro cannot forfeit his freedom.
01 The
[ 48 ]
The case of the runaway slave, ¢ould be the
only subject of such an experiment; and: as to
him, it is proverbial that he is never reclaimed.
When once hardy enough to have deserted: from.
the field and. breathed the air of liberty on:the
mountains, neither famine, nor perpetuah perils _
in his fugitive state, nor-the s¢veré punishments
which. infallibly follow his appréhension, ¢an de-
ter him from relapsing into the same offence:
The disease is incurable; and the master, after
trying all means, harsh or lenient, in vain, is go-
nerally glad to sell him for less than the a
of his former value. ;
Among the. various powerfid feckiags that
will combine to inspire a large community of
negroes inured by a ten years experience to the
habits. of freedom, with an aversion: perfectly
irreconcileable to. their former. state, there: is
one. which. claims particular attention.—It is one
which will probably occdsion' much obstinacy -
in. the attempt. to refix their fetters, while it
creates; at least an equal pertinacity of resistance;
I mean that antipathy to their former agricul-
tural labours, which has already been so visible
in the negroes of St. Domingo.
Man is naturally indolent, and impatient of
bodily restraint. Though spurred by his hopes
and fears into activity, and often: to: the most
ardent exertions, he is with difficulty bent to
the yoke of uniform and persevering: labour.
The
[ 49 ]
The suggestions of foresizht however are
very powerful impulses, especially when second
ed by habit; and the Great Author of our na-
tures has conferred on them a mild, as well as
a rightful dominion. When we bow to the gold-
en sceptre of reason, obedience has many faci-
lities, and its pains many mitigations. Nature
is not thwarted more rudely than the rational
purpose demands; and the mind, while it urges
on the material frame, cheers it in return with
refreshing and invigorating cordials.
Look at the most laborious peasant in Europe,
and if you please, the most oppressed: he is
toiling it is true from painful necessity; but it
is necessity of a moral kind, acting upon his ra-
tional nature ; and from which brutal coercion
differs as widely, as a nauseous drench in the
mouth of an infant, from:the medicated milk
of its mother. :
Is the impelling motive, fear of want, or dread
of a master’s displeasure; yet he sees on the
other hand, the approbation and’ reward attain-
able by exertions, whereof the degree at least
is for the moment spontaneous. Self-compla-
cency alleviates his toil, and hope presents to
his view, the hearty well-earned meal, the even-
ing fire-side, and perhaps the gratifications of
the husband, or the father, in promoting the
well-being of those dearest to his heart. Ts his
work fatiguing; he is at liberty at least, to
E , intro-
[ 50. ]
introduce some little varieties in the mode, or
breaks in the continuity of it, which give him
sensible relief. He can rest on his spade, or stay
the plough a moment in the furrow; can gaze at
a passing object, or stop a brother villager to
spend a brief interval in talk.
To the reflecting mind, these little privileges
Will not appear unimportant, when contrasted
with the hard and cheerless lot of the field negro.
He, is not at liberty to relax his tired muscles,
or beguile his weariness, either by voluntary
pauses in labour, or by varying its mode: h¢
must work on with his fellow slaves, let fatigue
or satiety groan ever so much for a moment's
respite, till the driver allows a halt.
But far more deplorable is the want of all,
thos¢ animating hopes that sweeten the toil of
the European peasant. To the negro slave
driven to his work, his involuntary exer-
tions as they can plead no merit, can promise
in general no reward. His meal will not be
more plentiful, nor his cottage better furnished,
by the fruits of his utmost toil. As to his wife
and children, they can hardly: be called bis.own:
whether the property of the same, or a different
owner, it is upon the master, not on himself,
that their subsistence and. well being depend... _
The negro therefore casts his hoe froma, ne ims
pulse but that of fear, and fear brought so clase-
ly and. copsinually, into contact with its phase
that
de, or
ve him
or stay
gaze at
ger ta
vileges
trasted
| negro.
1uscles,
luntary
de: he
fatigue
oment’s
t of all
> toil of
’ slave
exere
promise
not be
ished,
his wife
is.OWn:
ifferent,
himself,
end...
ng im+
» clases
object,
that
[ 51 ]
that we can hardly allow it to rise above brutal
instinct, and call it rational foresight, without
ascribing to the docility of the horse an equal
elevation. The other great and pleasing spring
of human action, hope, is entirely cut off.
When these peculiar citcumstances are duly
considered, the rooted aversion of the free negro
to his former labours, cannot excite sur¢
prise. It is unnecessary to suppose that they
were excessive in degree, for in their kind, they
were too irksome to be by the most patient of
our race contentéedly endured, or remembered
without abhorrence.
Neither is it necessary to suppose that the
impending lash was in the ordinary routine of
field duty often actually inflicted. The human
team might when well broken, move on so regu
larly, as to make the whip in the hand of a hus
mane driver little more than a mere ensign of au-
thority; yet the sense of perpetual constraint, and
ever goading neceéssity, would be much the same
The motive would still be instant fear though pro-
ducing from habit aregularand equable movement.
It might be admitted even without danger to
the argument, though I am sorry to say not
without doitig violence to truth, as well as pre»
bability, that this coarse actuation of the phys
sical powers of the hanian frame by an éerternal
mind interested ih their effect, wasin géreral hot
pushed to excess ; but was art impaled a6 lonionthy
and
[ 52 ]
and wisely regulated, as that of reason, when
guided by the sympathies of the soul with the
boy to which nature has allied it.
Nay wemight overlook the inevitable fr equency
of such excesses as masters of narrow or unfeeling
minds, may be expected to practise; and suppose
that in the time or measure of work, avaricearmed
with unlimited power, never exacted too much,
nor ever made too little allowance for occasional
or particular weakness; in other words, that while
thrones in Europe too rarely find possessors fit
to govern, the sceptre of a plantation falls into
the hands of none but Antonines and Trajans!!
Still we should see in this manner of enforcing
work, and in the general circumstances of West
India bondage, enough to account for a strong
antipathy in the breast of the enfranchised negro
to his former state, and its attendant labours.
If industry be not seldom wanting even
among the lower classes in Europe; how can
these poor husbandmen, who know the duty
only by its thorns, be expected to practice it?
My surprize I own is rather that with. all the
aid of military organization, in the hands of a
government popular by giving freedom, agri-
culture has been in any degree kept up at Gua-
daloupe, and Cayenne, than that it has so
greatly languished at St. Domingo.
Should it be objected, that this dislike to. la-
bour in their new ‘state, is but a prejudice, which
the
when
th the
quency
feeling
uppose
earmed
.much,
asional
at while
ssors fit
ills into
rajans ! |
forcing
of West
a strong
d negro
pours.
ng even
how can
1 all the
nds of a
m, agri-
at Gua-
has so
e'to la-
e, which
the
[ 53 ]
they have had time to conquer, by observ-
ing the ease and the happy effects of volun-
tary industry ; it may be answered, that victory
over prejudice, especially in illiterate minds, is
not soon or easily gained. Men far-more ad-
vanced than negroes in the exercise of their rea-
soning powers, find it hard to abstract the essen-
tial nature of any subject of experience, from
its usual, though adventitious attendants. We
are not easily persuaded that a medical draught
is not nauseous, and the pardoned convict would
probably shudder at revisiting his dungeon,
though for a purpose of curiosity or enjoyment.
But it is not only from the close association,
between the ideas of labour, and painful co-
ercion, that the difficulty in this case proceeds.
Unaccustomed to act upon the motives pro-
per to influence him in his new condition, the
negro cannot easily apprehend their nature or
their force. When you talk to him of the re-
wards of industry, and the evil consequences
of indolence, you speak a’ language he can but
very imperfectly understand. Hopes and dis-
tant fears, as incentives to work, are to himas
a new science whereof ‘he has the very elements
to learn; or rather like senses, the ozgans of
which are become from want of use inflexible
and unsusceptible. You might as reasonably ex-
pect a deaf man to march by beat of the drum.
To reclaim an Indian from his vagrant habits,
; | and
f 4 }
end prevail on him to exchange the precarious
subsistence of the chace, for the swrer returns of
the plough, has been found always difficult, and
generally impracticable. But the case of the
enfranchised negro, though not finally so hope-.
less, is at first more difficult to remedy. The
ane is a wild but vigorous youth, who will not
easily submit to the drill; the other a ricketty
infant, in whom from unnatural restraint the
muscles of voluntary motion are contracted,
The former may revolt from the yoke of disci-
pline, but the latter must be taught to walk.
In the negro, the self-dependency of a ra-
tional being, the close connection between his,
conduct and his natural, or social welfare, are
ideas perfectly new; for in his past state, the or-
dinary prudential lessons of experience, have
been entirely wanting. ‘To speak more properly,
they have been inverted, Encrease of labour,
has by impairing his health and strength, dimi-
nished his, bodily comforts without adding to
his external enjoyments. His gubsistence, has
heen proportioned to. his imbecilities, rather
than to his powers of exertion: when able to dg
least for the master, he has received the most
from him; and inaction, when, sickness produc-
eda respite from his labours, has heéw: the pas
rent rather of plenty, than of want,
But. it. woukd require. researches, into the hu»
man hear, deeper than either my time or my
poweys
> S| earn & 2 ww Rr Bo oh PA tee eet ott ULC
- & A S&S tet 45 Off lM
rious
ns of
tf, and
f the
hope-
The
Il not
ketty:
at. the
acted,
disci-
i.
a Tas
en his
re, are
he or-
have.
Dperly,
abour,
dimi-
ing to,
e, has
rather
P to dg
¢ most
roduc:
he pas
the hus
or my
powers
[ 55 ]
powers will allow i to pursue, to shew in de-
tail, how greatly the sources of industrious and
virtuous character are ruined by this unnatural
bondage.
Enough has been said to prove, that France
will have abundant difficulty to reconcile with
freedom, the speedy and full restitution of agricul-
ture in her colonies; and she will ih consequence
be actuated by strong temptation, to restore if
possible, the coercion of the drivers; while the
same causes will animate in no ordinary degree
the resistance of the negroes. If industry is
odious from the mere temembrance of its acci-
dental cotitiection with their former state; how
much more will they recoil from it with horror,
when the restitution of that state is its avored
attendant; when the néw foutid and kindly
though yet feeble, motives of teason afe to be
withdrawn, and perpetual labour again set before
them in alliance with the compelling cart-whip!
It is not here, that popularjspirit, which the
harangues of a demagogue, or the huzzas of a
mob, tay be necessary to inflame; it is not éver
that indignation which might animate a British
bosom against the invading arms of France ; but
a feeling far more powerful still, by which the
Republic will be opposed! Love of country
aud love of freedotn, never excited opposition so
Vigorous or determined, as may bé expected itt 4
cause like this! The event: involves interests
more
[ 56 ]
more -awfully important to the opponents than
ever before gave violence and durability to the
quarrels of mankind,
Supposing then that the counter-revolutionary
project of the Chief Consul, will certainly excite
in the great body of the negroes a determined
inclination to resist, let us next proceed to en-
quire ‘‘ what are their means of resistance?”
That a considerable proportion of the adult
male negroes of St: Domingo have been trained
to arms, is unquestionable, nor,is it improbable,
that a majority of them are now in some degree
inured to a military life; and if these could be
generally gained over by France, and employed
in the execution of her designs, her immediate
temporary success might be easy.
But this, is in a high degree improbable; for
‘hitherto, they have shewn an incurable distrust
of all the professions of the Republic, made from
time to time by her commissioners or other dele-
gates, even while her sincerity in promising to
maintain their liberty, could not be reasonably
doubted.
No considerable bodies of black troops have
ever been prevailed upon to join her standard, or
seriously attempt to support her government.
Negro leaders alone have been able to inspire
them,
lonary
excite
mined
to en-
>”?
adult
rained
ybable,
degree
uld be
ployed
\ediate
le; for
istrust
E 57 ]
them with confidence, and though these have
often disputed in the field with each other for
ascendancy, the governors appointed by France
have not been able either by policy, or by force,
to make head any where.against either party ;
but have at best been content to obtain from
the courtesy of Toussaint a mere shadow of au-
thority, till the Republic, prior to his late con-
stitution, was obliged to make a virtue of ne-
cessity, and recognize him as her legitimate ge-
neral.
It docs not seem probable therefore that Buo-
naparte with all his policy, will be able to obtain
the general and steady co-operation of the negro
chieftains and their troops; especially if his
plan of interior government be of the nature
here supposed.
Let it be considered that these men have
wives, children, and other dear connections,
whose freedom must be guaranteed with their
own, as a necessary basis of any agreement to
which they could be expected to subscribe ;
and if a moderate estimate of the number of
these relatives, be added to the probable number
of the men accustomed to bear arms, and the
sum of both deducted from the population of the
island, the residue could scarcely be very great.
It would certainly betoosmalltoanswer the views
here ascribed to the planters and to the Consul,
or
[ 58 j
or to admit of the secure re-establishment of
the old system in St. Domingo.
Of that system, complexional distinction is
too well known, to be a necessary cement, and
were even a fourth part only of the negroes to be
left in the same condition with the white inha-
bitants, while the latter had almost exclusively
the property of the land and slaves, their safety
would probably soon be found to demand 4 ge-
neral emancipation.
Were a majority of these black soldiers to co-
operate with France, it would soon be fatal as I
am about to shew, to the British Islands. But for
the present, in order to take the most probable
view of the prospects before us, I will assume
what seems far the most likely event, that the
Consul will not be able to conciliate for the
purpose supposed, any large part of these very
formidable opponents.
The contest then is to be, as Buonaparte
seems by the magnitude of his armaments to
expect, not Vetween armies of negroes opposed
“to each other, but between those natives of the
turrid zore, and European troops. Lét us’ en-
quire on which side, when such are the combat-
ants, lies the probability of success,
‘Phat European soldiers have to experience
peculiar difficulties in West India warfare in
general, is well known, It may be useful howe
ever
ent of
ion is
, and
to be
inha-
sively
safety
a gee
10 COs
fas I
ut for
bable
sume
it the
yr the
very
parte
its to
posed
if the
$ en-
nbat-
rence
re in
howe
ever
[ 59 |
ever to take a a distinct view of these difficul«
ties, before I point out their fearful aggravation,
in a war against the new description of enemies
to which the French troops will be opposed.
That diseese is infinitely more fatal to Euro-
peans in that climate, than the sword of the
most formidable adversary, the British Expedi-
tions to the West Indies in all modern wars,
but especially in the last, have fully and pain-
fully evinced. The causes however are but su-
perficially known and considered in this country.
Among all the facts adduced by the ‘Vest In-
dia party in justification of the African trade,
the least disputable perhaps is this, that labori-
ous exercise and exposure to the sun in a tro-
pical climate, are destructive to European con-
stitutions, Hence in all the departments of civil
life in the West Indies, vigorouslabour, especially
in the open air, is allotted almost exclusively
to the negroes; the very lowest of the whites
being only the surveyors of thei: labours, with-
put any participation in the muscular toil.
Yet even of the white overseers, men gene-
rally either natives of the climate, or of the
Jower order of emigrants from Europe, and
consec.ently of the hardiest habits of body, a
great proportion is cut off in the prime of life,
by the diseases of the climate,
Exposureto the sun is.alrne sufficient toproduce
this effect without the a... of bodily labour, and
to
[ 60 }
to produce it on persons who like these overseers,
have the advantages of dry and airy lodgings,
and wholesome food, and the same comforts in
sickness with the most opulent of their employ-
ers. How much more fatally then must the
same causes operate upon men, who besides ex-
posure to the eiements, are obliged to, undergo
all the fatigues of military service, who are
often obliged to act as centinels in the open. air
obnoxious to the pernicious dews of the climate
during the midnight hours, who when encamp-
ed in the open country find their tents. but a
miserable shelter from the tropical rains, and in
time of sickness are crowded together in an
hospital, mutually incommoding and, infecting
each other, and without any but that wholesale
attention, which gives a cheerless and ineffectual
aid to feeble and sinking nature !
Thus circumstanced, it is not strange that
the baneful properties of the climate are felt by
the poor soldier with a peculiar degre of malig-
nity ; and it is to these ordinary causes, more
than to that dreaded name the yellow fever, that
our deplorable losses by sickness in our West
India armies are imputable: though other cir-
cumstances equally inseparable from a military
life, as well as the peculiar difficulty of sup-
plying an army in a West India Island with ma-
ny articles essential to the health of Europeans
in
that
t by
alig-
nore
that
Vest
cir-
tary
sup-
ma-
[ 61 ]
in a hot climate, might be pointed out as con-
current sources of disease ard mortality.
Of all these disadvantages, the difference of
seasons, the less or greater degree of attention
used by Commanders in Chief, and other adven-
titious circumstances,’ may no doubt aggravate
or diminish the mischief ; but disease and death
ever have been, and ever will be found, march-
ing in the train of a West India army, and cut-
ting down its battalions with great and deplor-
able rapidity.
With these most formidable evils affecting
the troops themselves, many others of different
kinds concur to stop the march of conquest be-
tween the tropics, and te :. ..ten its reign.
The enormous expence o: transporting re-
cruits from Europe, the costly and wasteful
conveyance of military stores and. provisions,
and the perishable nature of most of them ina
tropical climate, the frequent losses by sea risk
and still more, the impossibility of effectu-
ally checking abuses in that distant field, and
the heavy expence fairly attending every ser-
vice performed in it, are great and obvious dis-
advantages of West India warfare: their mag-
nitude and ruinous nature this country has too
fully experienced.
To place a short-lived army in those Islands
costs more perhaps than would suffice for an or-
dinary campaign; and its services afterwards
are
[ 62 ]
are far more chargeable, than the same opera+
tions would be in any other part of the world.
Nothing couid have made such wasteful war
endurable by this aation, but the brilliancy and
brevity which have generally attended our West
India expeditions. I speak not of the fatal
enterprise too long persevered in against St.
Domingo; a measure which certainly was
persisted in and endured with a patience truly
astonishing; but let it be remembered that
the awful questions at issue in the late war,
gave to every undertaking by which the ge-
neral event might be influenced, a gigantic
importance; and seemed to justify sacrifices,
to which the worth of the immediate object
bore no proportion.
In every other case, and in all former wats,
the briefness of active hostilities by European
arms, whether French or English, in the West
Indies, has greatly palliated the evils that al-
ways attend them in that field. A few thousands
of white troops on each side, when masters of
the sea, or able to elude a superior fleet, aiter-
nately surprised a hostile Island, ot reduced a
fortress ; and the cperations were conimonly so
short, that the enterprise and event were usually
announced in the same Gazette.
During all such hostilities, the negroes on both
sides were held in a strict neutrality: the quar
rel between the nations was not worth the peril
of
Se Be wits pes ate MH ttlUCltktlC lll
| 63 }
of employing such allies: tne contest therefore
lay only between the European garrisons or mi-
litia, and the small armies employed in invasion;
the scale of war was as minute, as its operations
were transitory.
How widely different will be the circumstan-
ces of the approaching contest, if a contest be
really at hand, between France and’ negro free-
alom in the West Indies!!!
To speak of St. Domingo alone; an Island con:
taining at least 45,000 square miles* and half a
million perhaps of people, is to be subdued! The
time usually spent in West India conquest would
nat suffice for an unobstructed march across its
openest territory. It abounds in natural fastnesses,
in passes formidable to an invader, in woods
hardly penetrable, in mountains which the pant-
ing European would find inaccessible, even if
disencumbered of his arms. Here then war is
not likely to be soon at the end of its journey.—
Its operations must be multiform, extensive, la»
borious, and long protracted.
If to reduce the whole interior country to ef
fectual submission, will be a tedious as well as
* Geographers differ greatly as to the extent of St. Domin.
go: Guthrie describes it to be 450 miles long and 150 broad;
Mr. Edwards in his history of that Island, page 122, makes it
anly 390 in length, and 240.in breadth.—I have followed the
latter estimate, but with a large deduction for the great irre.
gularity in the breadth.
an
[ 64 ]
an arduous work, to fix its subjection perma-
nently must be far more so: to the incalculable
difficulties and hardships of war between the tro-
pics, must be added its European extent and
perseverance.
But when we consider the new enemy to be
encountered, these obstacles, great and unpre-
cedented though they are in themselves, swell
into a far greater and less superable magnitude.
To the sickly troops of the invading army,
would be opposed men entirely exempt from the
debilitating influence of the climate, men to
whom the yellow fever is unknown, who ar2
accustomed to endure the severest labour under a
vertical sun, and who neither sicken from the
excessive heat, nor the occasional humidity, of
the atmosphere.
While the French soldier would sink with fa-
tigue, and contract perhaps a mortal disease, by
an ordinary European march, the negro rather
exhiliarated, than oppressed, by the solar blaze
that exhausts his opponent, at least equally ro-
bust with him, and far more agile by constitu-
tion and habits, would advance or retreat the
same distance as matter rather of recreation
than toil, and with a rapidity of which the other
is in that climate quite incapable.
While the white soldier must be maiiitained
by imported provisions, which cannot without
great difficulty and expence be conveyed to
him
y
[oe y
etd him far from the sea coast, the latter, would find
lable in the most interior parts of the Islaud, and even
ee on the tops of the mountains, enough of vege-
and table food to support his hardy nature, and hold
it independently of all the chances of war. The
oe | soil itself is his inexhaustible magazin>; rapidly
apre- —@ += producing for him by the briefest and easiest:
swell culture, and even by its own spontaneous gift,
ude. the esculent plants, and fruits, on which he well:
gee knows how to subsist, especially now that the
m the fertile cane lands have for the most part been
je given up to the culture of provisions,
ig _ Accustomed to live on a mere pittance, and:
ader a B to endure nakedness as well as hunger, it is.
n the scarcely possible to reduce him by cutting off
y, of his supplies; he may therefore leave disease and,
waste to fight his battles, and find in retreat and
th fa- delay, certain ‘expeditens to frustrate the most
mi BY powerful invasion. ,
roraet The very surface of the country presents in-’
meee fallible means of harassing and destroying an-
a invading army by a desultory system of’ war.
hi , By the impetuous torrents that rush in the
rainy season from the mountains to the sea, every:
West India Island is broken into innumerable
deep ravines, or as they are called in the English-:
creole dialect “ guts,” so that in general it is.
impossible to. proceed a mile without meeting:
one of these guts or ravines. -Their sides are
often too steep to be descended with ease, and
F are
ation
other
ained
thout
ed to
him
[ 66 }
dre besides ugsually- covered with trees and
bushes ; the high roads are therefore continucd
across these difficult passes by embankments or
bridges above or below ; which it is impossible
for a horseman, and even difficult sometimes
for a foot passenger unused to the country, to
cross.
It is obvious how this circumstance might be
improved, not merely for the purposes of ambus-
cade, but, by the easy expedient of breaking
down the bridges and embankments, to stop the
advance of an enemy: indeed it is far more dif-
ficult to preserve these roads, than to destroy
them ; as they are frequently broken up by. the
torrents in the rainy season, and not repaired
without considerable labour and expence.
Even where such difficulties as these do not
present themselves, as in the more level parts of
the Islands, or where the mountains do not rise
very abruptly, there are still obstacles of a very
formidable nature to the advances of an invad-
ing army. In the uncultivated part of the coun-
try, the underwood is so dense and thorny as not
to be easily penetrated, except by the negroes,
whose dexterity in passing through the woods
by the help of their cutlasses or hatchets is ad-
mirable; and even in the cultivated ground,
from the high growth of the canes, coffee, and. |
most other tropical productions, an army could |
not advance out of the beaten roads, without |
: clearing
and
inucd
nts or
yssible
etimes
ry, to
ght be
mbus-
eaking
top the
ore dif-
destroy
by. the
epaired
do not
parts of
ot rise
avery
invad-
e coun-
y as not
egroes,
p woods
ts is ad-
ground,
fee, and
y could §
without |
clearing
[ oz ]
clearing their way by pioneers almost at.every
footstep, and being continually exposed to, am-
buscades.
To employ cavalry in such a country is ob-
viously a hopeless expedient ; as for the reasons
assigned, the roads might, easily be destroyed sq as
ta make the passage of a troop of horse imprac-
ticable. Their restitution by the hands of white
m:.1 would be no easy task; and in some places
perhaps the labour of an army for a day would
not repair a breach that might be made in a
single hour. Besides that in passing these roads
the troops would be continually liable to he
flanked by. ambuscades, they would hy being
mounted present fairer marks to a lurking
enemy, whom when discovered and routed
they could not purgue with effect. The fate
of a party of the St. Vincent’s volunteers who
went out on horseback to attack the Char-
ribbs in the late war, sufficiently illustrates this
remark. }
The places of retreat, for the negroes when
defeated would of course be the woeds and
mountains; where it would not only be impos-
sible for horse, but even extremely difficult for
European infantry to follow.
The superiority of the negro im that, climate
is in no point more remarkable thet-in the dis-
patch and facility with which: he ascends and
descends the steepest sidea of the mountains,
without
[ 68 ]
without falling or losing his breath; a faculty
which, no doubt, he chiefly owes to long and
early habit in the cultivation of those high and
steep acclivities in which the sugar Islands
abound. By the same habit, greatly assisted by
his not having been accustomed to the restraint
of shoes, and the consequent flexibility of the
muscles of his toes and feet, he is not incom-
moded with the slippery surface of the moun-
tain ridges, though washed with almost conti-
nual rains; and where a white man would find it
very difficult to walk steadily, the negro to the
surprise of strangers is seen descending with a
quick step, with a bundle of grass or wood on
his head, without orice losing his footsteps, or
dropping his load. :
It is on the mountains, that the runaway ne-
groes who abound in the English Islands elude
the pursuit of their masters: it was on the
mountains, that. by making a wise but obvious
use of the advantages which I have mentioned,
the Maroon Negroes of Jamaica established
and long maintained their independence ; and it
was principally the inaccessibility of such re-
treats, that so long baffled our efforts to conquer
a handful of Charribbs in St. Vincent’s.
It would be idle to insist much on ‘the general
advantages of such a native source of’ defence,
for how many instances are to be met with even.
in the history of Europe, of a rude and undis-
ciplined.
Ity
ind
and
nds
by
1int
the
om-
un-
nti-
d it
the
th a
l on
3, OF
r ne-
‘lude
the
7i0us
mned,
ished
nd it
h res
aquer
meral
fence,
andis-
even.
lined.
[ 69 ]
ciplined people destitute of all other warlike
resources, presenting successfully the barrier
of a mountainous country, to long continued
efforts made by powerful nations to subdue
‘them? :
But for the reasons spice assigned this bar-
rier is far more formidable between the tropics
than in the temperate climate of Europe; nor
hhad the Welch, Swiss, or Corsican moun-
‘taineers, the same constitutional superiority
ever their invaders, that the negroes of the
sugar Islands possess in their own mountains
ever the European soldier. *
_ When on the whole I consider merely the shi
sical disparity between these hardy children of
the sun in their native climate, and troops from
the temperate zone, I could almost compare
the supposed contest, to a battle in the water
between a seaman and a shark, or in the air
between an eronaut and an eagle,
Does any man doubt whether these new sol-
diers have courage to second their natural .ad-
vantages; let him enquire into the military
* So strongly were these considerations felt by our gallant
Officers who had to conflict on a very small scale with this new
enemy in the Windward Islands during the insurrections, and on
the reacapture of St. Lucia, that they were obliged to employ.
negroes for many of the more laborious services ; and called
the corps they were composed of, emphatically enough, “ /a-
‘6 tigue parties,”
cha-
Ee 3
character of the black corps which Great Bri-
tain herself has raised in the late war, as well
as of those by whom her brave armies have
been successfully resisted. Let him advert for
instance to the following passage in the letter
of Lieut. Gen. Trigge that announced the cap-
ture of St. Martin’s:—“ I have peculiar satis-
“© faction in being able to add that the eighth
* West India regiment, formed within the three
Jast years and composed almost entirely of
NEW NEGROES, who never before had seen an
enemy, engaged with a degree of gallantry,
and behaved in a manner that would do honor
to any troops.” (London Gazette, May 11th,
1801). These men fought in a cause which how-
ever good was certainly not to them so animating
as the defence of their private freedom.
I have hitherto considered the difficulty
that will attend the supposed enterprise while
_a standard of resistance is maintained. But the
restitution of the old system of slavery will re-
quire much ore than conquest and general sub-
mission. It is not enough to subdue the resist-
ing negroes ; they must be permanently kept in
subjection, and in active obedience to their pri-
vate masters. They must not only be com-
pelled to throw down the musket, but to re-
sume the hoe, and to submit again quietly to
the whip!
To govern by military power men who are
not
Te oa —
aes oe
A DA DW we 1. Ar pe
[ 71 ]
not soldiers, is for the ordinary purposes of civil
government, a plain and easy expedient, and in
a polished state of society the coarse engine
when once put into action possesses, for a time
at least, irresistible force. . But its impulse is ra-
ther of a benumbing, than a stimulating kind.
‘The terror.it inspires will make men tame, and
‘passive, but it is ill fitted to enforce the equable
‘and persevering performance of active duties.
The dread of military execution may disperse a
mob, or enforce the prompt payment of a sub-
sidy; but to oblige men to be industrious and
orderly in the walks of private life, we must re-
sort to sanctions less severe, and more capable
of frequent application.
The notion of agricultural labour being en-
‘forced by the continual presence ef soldiers in
the field, #s too evidently absurd to demand
serious consideration. We need not resort to
the peculiarities of the climate to shew the utter
“‘impracticability of such a mode of coercion; and
as to punishment for past idleness (of which we
have shewn the inefficacy in the case of men
brutalized by having been driven ;) what pains
could military power hold out as ordinary means
of discipline, more formidable than the cart
‘whip! The sentence of a Court Martial could
not be more prompt or more decisive than the
mandate of the Overseer.
To maintain however large armies perma-
nently
L.ve |
nently on the spot, though probably ineffectual,
as well as grievously exhausting to the state,
-wouid be'undenidbly necessary ; for it would be
preposterous to suppose that negroes once free,
and bent again by force of arms to the yoke,
could be kept in subjection by means less vigo-
rous.. The case of Ireland, where for purposes
far different indeed, means in some degree similar
shave been necessarily employed, may in this re-
‘spect faintly illustrate that of St. Domingo.
Independently of all other considerations, the
great bond of submission upon the minds of the
negroes, is if I mistake not, dissolved for evér.
A strange but fortunate prejudice, the crea-
ture of early terror, fostered by ignorance and
-habit,, secured in great measure the tranquillity
of these colonies before their revolutions; and
forms the great security of all the Islands where-
in slavery still prevails, I mean that nameless
and. undefined idea of terror, connected in the
mind of a negro slave, with the notion of resist-
ance to a white man and a master,
_ It is not by comparing the temptations to dis-
obey, with the pain of the worst punishment to
be inflicted for disobedience, that the slave is
kept in submission, or prevented even from raig-
ing his hand against his Jord, The whip in-
deed urges him to labour, and the fear of it may
overcome the lassitude, or indolence of nature ;
but that which makes him submit to such disci-
pling,
ee ae ee ee
[ 73 ]
pline, subdue his naturally impetuous and vindic-
tive feelings, be implicit in his active obedience,
at least while under the eye of a master, and
submit to privations and restraints innumerable,
without a murmur; in short, that which supports
the master’s authority, and ensures his safety, is a
strong and indefinite terror, which the slave from
his earliest years, or from the period of his im-
portation from Africa, has attached to the idea of
active resistance ; and which has been strength-
ened daily more and more, by habit, and the
universal example of his fellow slaves.
Like other phantoms of the imagination (as
for instance the fear of spirits) it is not to be
.corrected by reason; and like our sense of the
sublime, it operates even with greater force from
its obscure and indefinite nature,
Without the solution which this principle af-
fords, the passive submission of the West India
negroes to a very small and often unarmed mino-
rity of white men, and the extreme rarity of any
act of individual vengeance on a master, would be
wholly inexplicable; for in most of the Islands
the law has arnexed no more dreadful mode of
execution than hanging, either to rebellion or
to murder: yet insurrections, especially in the
old islands, are very rare; and the murder of a
masier by his slave, a crime scarcely ever heard
pf, except in a general revolt.
‘These facts cannot proceed from the absence of
resentful
we
i
( 74 ]
resentful feelings ; for towards persons of their own
colour, negroes are uncommonly violent and vin-
dictive; and murder is among them no unusual
crime. Nay, it has sometimes happened, that
‘resentment of some great wrong received from
a master, mstead of leading to violences against
him personally, has induced them to indulge
‘the desire of vengeance at the expence of their
own destruction, in order to deprive him of his
‘property. Within a few years, and in a single
island, three stances occurred of slaves putting
themselves to death, avowedly from this motive ; |
and in one case, the man while in great torments
from the fractures and dislocations caused by
jumping down a deep well, gloried in what he
had done; telling his master with exultation,
“ that he had lost his most valuable slave.”
It is obvious that such revenge and despera-
tion must often be fatal to the master, if some
ptinciple stronger than the fear of death itself
were not his protection.
It would be tedious to mention all the facts
and considerations from which the existence of
such a principle may be farther demonstrated ;
but no man of reflexion can have resided long in
the West Indies without perceiving it, and rely-
mg on it more than on the laws or the govern-
ment, for his security.
This principle of action, like most others,
that have thew origin, not in reason, but in ig-
norance
[ 7 ]
norance-and habit, when once subverted can ne-
wer be renewed. The negro, who has been ele-
vated to the same social freedom with his former
master, and has drawn: aside the veil by which
the weak pedestal of former authority was con-
cealed, can no more regard the one with a super-
stitious reverence, nor yield a blind obedience to
the other. The spell is finally dissolved.
More especially must this prejudice be inca-
pable of renewal, when the practical lesson has
been, not only that white men and masters may
be resisted, but even confronted in arms, with-
out those nameless dreadful consequences at
which the soul was formerly appalled.
It will be no less impossible again to breathe
into such men the terrors which kept them in
subjection, than it would be to renew in a philo-
sopher the superstitions of the nursery, so that he
should again believe in giants and magicians ; or
to frighten a man of mature age with the rod of
his schoolmaster. If bowed anew under the for-
mer system, they will submit perhaps, while rea-
son shews them the impracticability of resist-
ance, but no longer ; and it is not this prudential
thinking, obedience, that will enable the white
Colonists to maintain their authority, with their
former small proportion of numbers, and scanty
means of military defence.
I consider this change in the ideas, of the ne-
groes as the most invincible of bars to the per-
manent
[ 76 ]
manent restitution of the slave system in the
French Islands: but the revolution that has
taken place in their habits, is a concurrent and
very formidable obstacle. The weight of the
chain so long thrown off would now be felt with
an increased anc intolerable pressure; and a rest-
less desire to escape from it, would probably be
superior to the apprehension of the most real and
jmminent dangers of resistance.
Insurrection therefore would long continue to |
find frequent and bloody employment for the
Jarge garrisons of Guadaloupe and St. Domingo ;
till the Mother Country, wearied with the ex-
pence of life and treasure in vecruiting them,
would relax in her efforts, and successful rehel-
jion give a new birth to negro freedom,
».
ge ae
ae
spitrecnio
:.
5
ieee. SS
Tam, &e. &c,
LETTER TL.
LETTER III.
SiR,
: I HAVE thus far endea-
voured to illustrate the true nature of the con-
test in which France has probably embarked ; and
have laid before you some considerations from
which the best conjecture may be formed of. the
immediate event; especially in relation to that
great Island, which may perhaps be destined to
be the cradle of the liberty, of the African race,
as it formerly was of their bondage, in the West-
ern world,
To prove that the restitution of the yoke they
have broken will not be easily effected, was a
necessary preliminary to that which is more im-
mediately the subject of our present enquiry, the
determining what consequences interesting to
Great Britain this great enterprise is likely to
produce.
But
[ 78 |
But that branch of our subject appeared to
me to have a further, and substantive, import-
ance. The policy of this country since the pre-
liminaries of Peace were signed, seems to have
been greatly affected by an opinion that a coun-
ter-revolution in the French Colonies, was an
object not only desired by the Republic, and sa-
lutary to our own West India Islands, but a.
highly practicable work ; and I know not to what
dangerous lengths the same groundless expecta-
tion may continue to prevail and to influence our
public counsels*.
I proceed to consider first the probable. effects
of a failure in this undertaking ; and shall next
énquire, what consequences are likely to flow
from the opposite, and more unlikely event, that
of its success.
In contemplating the former case, the public
Opinion seems so far ta have anticipated my con-
* Tt seems probable that but for such an expectation France
would not have been permitted to send such vast armaments to
the West Indies before a Peace was definitively sealed. On the
prudence of such a permission I presume not to offer an opinion,
as the grounds of it are not yet before the public. Much con.
fidence is due to the prudence of administration, and it is
presumable that this courtesy to the Republic was founded upon
considerations that could not with proprie'y be disclesed. As
the case now stands before the public, the dissatisfaction and
anxiety on this subject, expressed by a learned and very intel-
ligent Member of the House of Commons, seem by no means
ill founded,
clusions,
{ 79 }
clusions, as to regard the establishment of a negro
state, or even a community of free negroes under
the government of France, in the West Indies,
as likely to prove fatal in its: consequences to out
sugar Colonies,
The danger of such a political phenomenon in
point of precedent, on which great stress has
been laid, is sufficiently obvious. But that dan-
ger is not in my apprehension the greatest ground
of alarm: for there is a state of extreme degra-
dation in which man is little affected by politi-
cal argument, even in the persuasive form of ex-
ample; and a jacobin would probably find the
field-negro of Jamaica, a pupil less susceptible
than even the Copht of Grand Cairo.
But in the event here first supposed, Propa-
gandists would soon be found, with physical
force enough to break the chains of their sable
brethren, and with arms to put into their hands;
or at least with power to usurp the territory to
which they belong, and give them masters of a
new complexion.
The natural and ordinary appetite in the foun-
ders of an infant state, for enlargement of do-
minion, would be whetted by the richness of
the neighbouring spoil, by the facility of con-
quest, and by a pretext which would give to
usurpation the appearance of generosity and
justice, Ifthe little Grecian republics, thought
it an honourable cause of war, to deliver men of
the
[ 80 ]
the same extraction, from the domination of those’
whom they called tyrants; how much more spe-
ciously might the hostilities of the negro chiefs
of St. Domingo be justified, by the degrading’
bondage of their African brethren! Nor would:
policy fail to co-operate very powerfully with
these motives. Thesecurity of their own freedom
would hardly be. compatible with the continu-
ance of negro slavery in all the surrounding
Islands ; and they would see in the bendage of.
Cuba and Jamaica, a yoke that would probably
be refitted to their own necks, if the powers of
Europe should ever be able to replace it.. While
a skin, of the same tincture with their own,
should every where.else in. the West Indies, and
even.in the skirts of the same visible horizon,
be a badge of perpetual slavery, how could
they possibly regard their white neighbours
with confidence; or feel that they held their
own new social character and privileges ml a safe
and peaceable tenure?
The neutrality of Toussaint, from the time
of the evacuation of St. Domingo by our troops
to the end of the war, is no argument for the,
expectation of the same policy in future. It
was the result of a compact made by him, in
very critical and arduous circumstances: so at.
least we are warranted by strong appearances, , as
well as general and uncontradicted report, :to be-
lieve; and that extraordinary man is said to be
distin«
[ si ]
distinguished by inviolable fidelity to his en-
gagements.
But if he, and the people of St. Domingo in
general, were weak enough to believe Great Bri-
tain, sincerely disposed to favour the cause of ne-
gro freedom in the West Indies, ‘aey must beal-
ready convinced of their mistake. They have seen
the bar of our naval hostilities removed from the
coasts and the harbours of France in order that
naval armaments might proceed against them ;
before notice of the Peace, should put them on
their guard; and this not only while they were
observing a strict neutrality towards us, but
while our quarrel with the Republic was not’ yet
definitively ended. . They will know that the
British Cabinet chose even to encounter some
national anxiety rather than not acquiesce in a
measure hostile to the negroes of St. Domingo.
If still undeceived, it is probable they will not
long remain so, unless you, Sir, and your colleagues
should ‘cease to behold with that complacency
which has been hitherto manifested, this project
of the Court of the Thuilleries,
Situated as Jamaica is, it is scarcely possible,
that in the approaching contest, we should ob-
serve an exact neutrality of conduct in that Co-
lony unless very rigid prohibitions, such as will
not readily flow from the disposition which seems
at this juncture to prevail, are speedily issued and’
G enforced.
C s J
enforced. The. ships of France will perhaps be
refitted in the harbours of that island, or at least
kindly received there; and from thence as con-
venient magazines, the fleet and army of St.
Domingo, will probably draw many essential
supplies. Shall we treat the resisting negroes
with equal favor? I presume, Sir, you are not
prepared to risque another war with France by
acting on this occasion the part she took with
our own revolted colonies; and if you were, lam
sure that the people of Jamaica would not well
second your intentions ; you will find it difficult
even during this bellum servile, to restrain them
by: the, strongest interdictions from active co-
operation with the assailants. :
To a determined spirit of hostility against our
Islands, the negroes should they triumph in the
approaching contest will add new energies of
character, and new means of annoyance. It is
by a struggle for political independence, or so-
cial freedom, that the warlike faculties. of a
people are most. powerfully called forth, ‘and the
military spirit created. But for independency,
the negroes of St. Domingo cannot properly be
~ said yet, to have fought; much less for that far
more interesting stake ‘“ private freedom,” as
apposed to West India bondage.
They broke the yoke indeed by insurrection,
and. some barbarous conflicts ‘ensued ; but the
resistance
f 83 ]
resistance of the masters was short, as well as
feeble; and the struggle was no mote fitted to
form.them into soldiers, than the massacres of
Paris were to discipline its ferocious insurgents,
The resistance afterwards made to the British
arms, furnished no doubt a better school; but the
cause was hardly understood to be that of free-
dom, as opposed to domestic slavery. To restore
the whips and the drivers, was not, in profession
at least, the object of our invasion, and to reduce
the interior of the Island, was hardly a part of out
attempt. We seized on many of their ports, and
their fortresses, on the coast; but to the negroes
of the interior the question might seem to be little
more than whether the pennants of France or
Great Britain should fly in their harbours; and
in that question they, who naturally regarded
all Europeans as enemies, and the French in ge-
neral as exasperated foes, probably felt little in-
terest beyond what their leaders cloathed with
some shew of French authority, and wishing
to conciliate the Republic, laboured to inspire.
Considerable bodies of ill-armed (#oops were
drawn together, and hemmed in our garrisons,
within the walls of the fortifications which they
occupied, or within such a narrow border of sur-
rounding territory, as European soldiers could
traverse by a single march in that climate: but
it was as impossible for the negroes, destitute as
they
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[ 84 ]
they were of artillery and of most other means of
Tegular warfare, to attack us in our fortified
posts, as for our sickly and much divided forces,
to march under a: vertical sun, through that
extensive country, in quest of an enemy in the
open field.. Regular battles therefore were un-
known and even skirmishes not very frequent.-—
From the time’ of our reducing the important.
places on’ the coast, ‘to the ‘final evacuation of
them, the war resembled a long blockade: the
. invaders and invaded’ were. for the most part.
alike inactive, and disease was theonly, but the
effectual assailant, to which British courage and
‘perseverance, were at length obliged to submit.
‘That by these contests,’ and the subsequent
civil broils, soldiers have been formed in sufficient
abundance to make the black colonists dangerous
neighbours:is not very doubtful: but it’ I judge
rightly of the approaching struggle, military
skilt and‘ military habits will rise among them
toa much higher pitch, and will be aided by
a proud sense, not of equality merely, but of su-
periority, in war, to the troops of Europe.
Not only a spirit: of conquest, the ordinary,
growth of this character, may be. expected to
follow; but employment for the black’ legions
Wwillo-become necessary to internal repose.—Fot .
ian, military man. at least, is -nearly the,-same
¢haracter between the tropics.as in the temperate
yo zone;
[ 8 J
‘zone; and St. Domingo like ancient Rome, or
modern France, will have become: a military
Republic.
It is needless to insist further onthe dangerous
consequences to be apprehended from ‘the sup-
posed 'triuinph of the arms of the negroes, as they
are on all hands perceived ‘and acknowledged.
But between the entire success. of the plans: of
France, and the total subversion of her authority
and influence, there is a middle issue, tothe pro- —
bability and the tendency of which the public
seems not to have sufficiently adverted : I mean
that of a compromise, by which the sovereignty
of the Republic may be acknowledged, and
negro liberty at the same time maintained.
There is a point beyond. which: ineffectual ef-
forts to restore the formersystem, ‘will probably
not be) extended ; and from the nature of the
impending contest this crisis is probably not
very temote. It may be accelerated, by a new
revolutian not unlikely to happen in the govern-
ment.of: the Republic; and by: the natural
disposition in the authors of a revolution to
reverse the measures of their predecessors in
authority,
Now, whenever that period comes, it can
hardly be supposed. that France in sheathing
the sword, will needléssly renounce the sceptre.
Unable to restore the planters, she will at least
attempt
[ 86° ]
. attempt 6 restore the political supremacy of the
Republic ; and if the negroés cannot again be
made slaves, she will invite them to enjoy theit
freedom tinder the protéction ‘of the 'tri-colouted.
flag, Like Great Britain, in the case’ of the
Noth American Colonies, she will attempt con-
ciliation, when force is found inefficacious, ' and
probalily with better success; for a separation
from the mother country in Europe,’ however de-
sirable it:may have'been thought for the self-
- dependent, ‘and commercial colonies, of the
Northérn Continent, can never be the amen
of a West India Island. :
{ Frazice,'in a word, will in the digi évent
be glad to preserve the sovereignty of the Island
upon terms to which the negroes will readily
subscribe :’ they will continue free, but: will ac.
knowledge Sheniseligs: pt me citizens: ar Wash
jects: |
the present design of the Chief Consul are un-
founded ; and that these gteat armaments ‘have
been dispatched, otto alter the condition of
the negroes, but ‘merely to overturn the Consti-
tution and Government of Toussaint; and let
it also be supposed that this comparatively easy
enterprise will be crowned with, immediate. ‘suc-
cess; and what) will be the obvious. immediate
consequence? | In ata case, as well gs in the
former,
-Orlet it here be viii er my notions of
83S Ft ae 5 ses os 6
[ 87 ]
former, we have our natural enemy, the: gigantic
rival of our greatness, placed in a capacity of an-
noyance, not less formidable, than unparalleled.
Behold'in this single Island a population, of at:
least two hundred. thousand -adult:male negroes*
of whom probably, a third part are already inured
in some degree toarms, ‘at the door of our most
valuable settlement, and ‘ready to assist the
ambition of the Republic for any purpose not
adverse to their freedom, but most of all for
that of ‘conquering the ea ey islands of
Creat Britain !
© This to ‘European ideas may appear too large a proportion
of men, if the whole population does not exceed half a millions
but letiit be observed, ‘that there is always a vast disproportion
of numbers between the sexes among the colonia! negroes, the »
males being by far.the more numerous, and that the rising ge.
neration is unhappily very thin compared to the parent stocks.
Both these known circumstances of West India population are
most prominent where the recent importations from Africa
have:been greatest ; and these were unusually great in St. Do-
mingo within a few years immediately preceding the revolu-
tion. In a gensral account of the state of the West Indies
published in 17711 there is an account of the population of the
Erench part of this Island wherein the slaves are stated to
amount to 250,000 only, though the author evidently wishes -
to give strong ideas of the importance of the Colony ; yet by
official returns in 1,796 which have been already noticed, they
amounted to 480,000 and Mr. B. Edwards gives that as the true
number about the same period. Hist. of St, Domingo, page 10.
Hitherto,
[ 88 J
Hitherto, the West India Colonies, have fur~
nished few or no resources of offensive war to
their European masters. They have in their
strongest state, demanded protection, rather
than ministered assistance. Endangered within
by a source of perpetual insecurity, by a syste
which: precluded the hope of voluntary. fidelity
in the great mass of the inhabitants, all that the
freé Colonists. could be expected to da for the
parent state in war, and more than they have
always effected, has been to guard themselves
by militia establishments, from insurrections.of
their slaves; and to second, in some small mea,
sure, the efforts of their European defenders, in
repelling invasion.
' Many an effective regiment has been reduced
to a mere name in their 1 hospitals; but not one.
regular corps, till the alarming exigencies of the
late war, led to the’ before untried expedient of
enrolling a regiment or two of negroes, was ever
raised in the West Indies, Instead therefore of
strengthening the belligerent arm of the parent
state, they drained away its vigour ; ; armies
powerful at the opening of a campaign, have
been divided and broken down to recruit their
garrisons, or to suppress their revolted slaves,
With-such imbecilities' and disadvantages,
which Great Britain must still continue to sus-
tain in her colonies, let us for a moment con-
, trast
[ 89 ,
trast the new situation of France on the sup-
posed pacification with the negroes.
She will stand in need of no armies from Eu-
rope. The diversion of force in this quarter,
the enormous expence, the danger of the pas-
sage, with the dreadful mortality, to which Eu-
ropean troops are subject in a West India cam-
paign, may all be saved. St. Domingo alone,
will furnish disposable troops enough, to out-
number the. utmost collective force which we
can possibly spare for the defence of all our
islands; of troops, to whom the peculiarities of
the climate are salubrious, instead of destructive;
and marches under a vertical sun neither exhausts.
ing nor laborious.
Nor will her future hostilities be subject to
any diversion by the defence of those Colonies
of her own in which liberty shall remain, Their
internal strength will bid defiance to invasion, as
in the late war we have too fully experienced.
What is still more formidable, the attractions of
her new system, and the very complexion of her
troops, will ensure to her in every slave Colony
she invades, numerous and irresistible allies; ready
not only to facilitate, but to perpetuate her con-
quests, Sy
T challenge any man, “acquainted with the
West Indies, or, with the history of warfare in
that country, to point out any possible means by
which
[ 90 ]
which our islands, and especially Jamaica, could
be effectually defended against such fearful odds
as these !
Of the inclination of France when opportu-
nity may invite, to strip us of our sugar Colo-
nies, little doubt can be entertained; but in
the case supposed new motives would arise to
strengthen the ordinary impulses of pendency i
rivalship and ambition. -
We suppose her baffled in thé attempt to re-
store the agricultural wealth of St. Domingo,
and obliged to acquiesce in its remaining for
a long time barren of almost all but mili-
tary advantages. Without the produce of* this
great and fertile Island under industrious cul+
ture, competition ‘with Great Britain in the
sugar markets of Europe will be impossible; and
the consumption of France herself; must in 4
considerable degree be supplied by the British
Planter, Is it likely then, that she will suffer
us to retain such an ascendancy, and such gol-
den advantages, at her expence, when the means
of wresting them from us will be at oncé easy
and obvious? ‘No! From the moment that St.
Domingo is found incapable of being speedily
restored to its former value, the rich Island of
Jamaica, will become an object of jealousy and
envy that France ‘will not'have justice or motie- —
Paton enough to tesist; and will be thought
perhaps
t oF 3
perhaps a reasonable indemnity for the ir-
treclaimable state of her “own ‘Colonies, -pro-
duced ‘in some measure as it may seem to have
been; by the maritime anti ireste of this coun
try. ,
* She cut us off from our Colonies” sight the
French Politician say of Great Britain “ while
** our influence or our arms might have remedied
* the recent effects of insu-rection ; ‘she’ ceased
* to do so, only when those effects were inctr-
able; it is just that she should furnish an‘in-
** demnity. Instead of a colony of labourers,
* she has allowed us to regain only a colony ~
$
of soldiers. We have found the plough-sharo
* beat into a sword; and must make the only
* remaining use of our dominion, by employing
“ that sword against her,’ Since ‘the negroes
“will not resume their hoes, let lis dviil our-
® ‘selves of their muskets, By means of thest
African auxiliaries, we shall wound Carthage
“in the most vulnerable ‘side, ‘clip the wings
of her commerce, and enitich ourselves with
“her spoils !"” .
Against the injustice of this language, I fear
the morality of a French statesman would not
very strongly revolt; and to its policy, it seems
not casy to find a very satisfactory objection.
‘Were there even no expedients to prevent the en-
franchisement of the Jamaica slaves from being
animmediate result of the supposed conquesi; and
supposing
z
[ 92 J
supposing that no advantages, would, in that
case, redound to the French commerce or re-
venue; still.a severe blow would be given to
the resources and the power of Great Britain,
and to that decided maritime superiority, which
is at once the curb. and the BumiNation of the
Republic.
How far reluctance to enter on a new war,
would for a while counterpoise these temptations,
I leave to the consideration of those who are best
qualified to. estimate the general probabilities of
an abiding pacific disposition in the government
of that powerful and impetuous people, But let
it be taken into the calculation that the re-esta-
blishment of her West India commerce, and the
retrieval of her colonial wealth, must have been
leading motives with France in the late pacifica-
tion; and that in proportion therefore as these
objects are found, unattainable, our security for
her pacific views will probably be impaired. We
may add, it will be still more diminished by.a
state of things which may furnish her with new
and effectual means of annoying her old enemy in
.a distant quarter of the world. Instead of the
love of general peace, preving a protection to
Jamaica, the temptation offered by that Island
may be fatal to the general peace,
- The defence of our wooden walls, will naturally
_present. itself to an English mind, as a possible
safeguard to our Islands; even under circum-
stances
[ 98 J)
stances the most perilous. Of this dependence
in the case supposed, I shall shew the extreme
insecurity; but will defer that consideration till
we have examined another source of dangers, to
which the reasoning to be adduced will be
equally applicable.
‘Hitherto, we have supposed that France will
not acomplish the restitution of negro bondage.
Let us now suppose on the contrary, that this
great counter-revolution will be fully effected.
This is an event, to which the pubiic mind
has been industtiously directed, as an object
perfectly desirable for this country. ‘ The res-
“* toration of order, industry, and subordination,
“« the subjugation of’ the refractory negroes, the
** destruction of the revolutionary scourge, the
“ extinction of anarchy, of the jacobin spirit ;”
and many other specious descriptions, are’em-
ployed to pourtray this happy change, which yet
has been shewn, to have no distinct and definite
meaning in the minds of Europeans in general ;!
but which if meant to imply the speedy’ res-
titution of industry by force of arms, must ‘ne-'
cessarily imply in practice the re-establishment’
of the former bondage. ia
From this counter-revolution, we are taught
‘as Englishmen to expect none but. happy con-’
sequences. “It is to put an end, to the dan-
gerous situation of our own Islands! It is’
j i 6 an
{ 94 }
an object, that the British Ministry must.se-
cretly if .not.openly favour; which if they do
not actively promote, they must at least cordi«
ally desire !”
The confidence with, which. such. notibns. are
asserted, is not greater than the credulity with
which, they are recieved; though to a man who
extends his researches an inch below the. surface
their rashness and. unsoundness, are most evident,
We have seen the formidable difficulties, that
must, attend. the subjugation of the negroes, if
ever ‘finally subdued ; and it has I trust, bee
satisfactorily proved to.you, that supposing such
an object attained, nothing less than the conti-
nual presence of.an. irzesistible military. force,
can maintain the restored authority of the mas-
ter, or prevent the most dreadful insurrections,
Now France like Great Britain, .formetly. main-
tained. but slender garrisons, in her Islands, in
time of Peace. Im general they were. indeed
rather stronger than our own; but not more than
sufficient to secure their. most. important. for-
tresses from sudden assault, and by no means
such as to afford the means of any important éx-
terior enterprise.
Hence. the chief security of the two Powers
as to their sugar Colonies, on the breaking. out
of war. . For the. purpose of West India. con-
quest, armies were to be sent from Europe;.and_
time was conscyuently given to the opposite
Power
[ 95 ]
Power if vigilant, to make prepdrations for de-
fence... By a kind: of tacit compact, means of
offensive. warfare were not provided in that. dis-
tant. quarter, except during actual hostilities ;
and had a considerable force been sent out by
either Power during Peace, the other. would
have remonstrated, and .on failure of immediate
satisfaction, would have felt sufficient ground for
counter-preparation at least, if not even a jus-
tifiable cause of war:
But France now, will have an cian tmetibte
pretext for increasing her West India garrisons to
any extent she thinks proper: she will even be
under an evident necessity, of maintaining in that
quarter at all times, a regular force large enough
to be utterly inconsistent with the safety of the
British Islands,
You admit her right to send to. St. Sistas
before the sword is ‘well sheathed, 25 sail of the
line, and 25,000 men, because the re-establishment
of her colonial government requires it. How
then can you deny her an equal right, to maintain
for the necessary support of that government
when re-established, whatever force the case may
fairly seem to require? To call on her to reduce
her garrisons, to'the old peace establishment at
St. Domingo, Guadaloupe, or Cayenne, would
be a deinand to give up anew her slave system
in those colonies, and‘ consign the planters to the
horrors of a second revolution,
Admitting
[ 96 ]
Admitting that she has a right, to maintaifi
there a force hitherto unknown in times of
Peace, what limits can you put sto its dimen-
sions? Who but the governments of those
respective Colonies, or the cabinet with which
they correspond, shall judge of their interior si-
tuations, and of the degree of latent danger, to
which they may be exposed from the the embers
of the newly-extinguished fire? Are we ta
appoint secret committees to enquire into. the
plots of the French slaves? If not, by what
means'shall we determine, how many. thousand
troops are necessary at Guadaloupe, and.how.
many tens of thousands at St. Domingo, for the
purposes of internal security ? |
If a French Minister wanted an argument to
enhance those necessities, he might remind
us of the Maroons of Jamaica, or the Char-
ribbs of St. Vincent; and ask us to count our
losses by those petty enemies, whose expulsion
only could make us safe, before we prescribe
limits to her, in the means of overawing and
coercing half a million of negroes! It is.needless
to suppose however, in the Republic, any wish
tu exceed in her. establishments, the real exi-
gencies of the case. Without any insidious use
of her new situation in the Antilles, _ it will
oblige her to become formidable..there to every
neighbouring Power. Without any -hostile
. views,
s+ white e ue a
[ 97 ]
views, she must prepare the means of irresistible
future hostility,
‘TI pretend not to determine, to what extent
hier permanent military establishment must ner
cessarily be enhanced: jt is sufficient to say,
that beyond the defence of the old fortifications,
endangered perpetually by a new internal enemy,
she inust establish and maintain a military orga-
nization in the interior, ramified enough, and.
strong enough, to oyerawe the slaves, and to give
security and confidence to the masters. Without
this, the counter-reyolution we are supposing
would be fruitless of every thing but blood; and
with a permanent force like this, at her com-
mand, no hostile neighbour coyld be safe for a
moment. Dr; sights that would hardly be missed
from such an establishment, would be ade-
quate to overpower the strongest garrison we
ever maintained during Peace, in the largest
of our Islands.
But a more alarming consideration still, arises
from the nature of the force of which these new
and formidable establishments will certainly in
a great degree be composed. That the full sucs
cess we are now supposing to have crowned the
plans of the French Government, can possibly
be attained, without 2 coalition with che negro
chiefs, and the assistance of large bodies of their
troops, it would be preposterous to imagine.
How then are those important auxiliaries to be
H disposed
[ 98 j
disposed of, when the arduous immediate object
shall be accomplished? Will France disband
these sable legions? Will she tell them to pile
their arms in the cane pieces, and submit
their backs again to the drivers? That they
would acquiesce in such treatment, is not moré
improbable, than that the government of the
Republic would be rash and weak enough to
make the experiment. But France will have
learnt to appreciate their value as soldiers teo
well to wish to reduce their numerous and dis-
ciplined battalions, She will see in them, not
only the necessary support of interior govern«
ment, but the irresistible instruments of her
ambition, and the potentiality of soon wresting
from this country the whole of her West India
dominions, Rely upon it then Sir that generals
Toussaint, Christopher, and Moses, will not be
cashiered; and that France will in future not
only outwing you enormously in her military
establishments in the Western World, but that
her soldiers will be cf that formidable descrip+
tion, whose native superiorities I have feebly at+
tempted to delineate*,
* A British officer who was taken prisoner on his passage from
Jamaica and carried into St. Domingo, has published a short
narrative of his adventures in that island, and he states that
he saw Toussaint review near the Cape 60,000 well disciplined
negroés, (See Major Rainsford’s Narrative.)
Let
{ 9%
Let us now take down the map of the West.
Indies, and cast our eyes on the different geo-
graphical points where these dangerous establish-
ments will be formed. .
In the first place; we have Cayenne, a
settlement to windward of all our Islands and
within a short distance of some of the most
valuable. Next, Guadaloupe, a large Island in
the very centre of the Charribbean chain, and
surrounded by British Colonies, at the distance
of a few hour’s sail:—Lastly, the great Island
of St. Domingo, now wholly belonging to
France, from which the shores of Jamaica, can
be seen, and can be invaded by a passage
before the wind, to be made ina single night.
Had France selected three military stations, as
places of arms, and of rendezvous, for the future
conquest of all our sugar colonies, she could
not have chosen better. Her invading Power,
will stand on tiptoe at the very threshold of
every West India Island we possess, ready to
rush in upon the first order for hostilities.
Her military establishments at Cayenne, and
Guadaloupe, indeed, will natucally be much
less than in the vast Island of St. Domingo;
but when compared to the ordinary means of
defence, in our small adjacent islands, will be
equally irresistible. An effective company of
regulars for each Island of the windward and
leeward Charibbees is more, than in times of
| peace
f 100 ]
peace we have usually maintained. Some of
the smaller Islands, have often been left in the
late Peace, without any European troops at all;
and as to the petty militia furnished by a scanty
free population of a few hundred families, it
was rarely called out, or embodied, except dur-
ing actual war.
What hope could be founded on means of de-
fence like these, against such an army as even
Guadaloupe, would now at a day’s notice be
able to furnish for invasion? To rivet the
chains of near 100,000 negroes, will probably
require even there, many thousands of regular
troops; of whom, for the brief and important
purposes, of a coup de main against our Islands
a considerable part might be drawn from gar-
rison service.
To keep in subjection the re-inslaved negroes
at Cayenne, and guard the large, and now much-
extended limits of that colony a force equally
great will in all likelihood be employed, as the
continental situation, makes insurrection there
peculiarly easy, and its suppression extremely
difticult.* Grenada, would probably give the
first temptation to hostile enterprise, from this
quarter; and let the history of her late insur-
rection witness, how hopeless would be her om
dinary means of resistance. Thus, without
* The settlement properly called Cayenne is divided only
by a small river from the Continent of Guyana, :
taking
f 101 j
taking into account the force of Martinique,
and the other Islands, restored by the peace to
Trance; which will also probably soon be gar
risoned by negro troops; we should find in every
quarter dangers of the most imminent kind.
I confess to you Sir, that when I contemplate
this prospect, Iam astonished to hear the success
of the Frenchexpedition spoken of as an event for
which Englishmen are to put up their vows. The
planter’s property might indeed be as safe in Jas
maica under the French flag, as in Demerara un-
der the Dutch; and if the Consul cordially
shakes hands with negro slavery, I know not why
this prospect should even check the same spirit
of speculation that lately poured millions of
British capital into the soil and the slave markets
of colonies soon to revert to an enemy. But to
the general interests of the empire, there is a
calamity far more fatal than even the dreaded
progress of negro-liberty ; and that is, the addi-
tion of our West India possessions to the other
conquests of France. Far the country at large,
it would be a less dreadful evil, that our sugar co-
lonies should be impoverished or ruined by re-
volution, than ~%nquered by foreign arms ; .and
less injurious that they should be usurped by a
negro state, than by he government of the
great nation.
How then Sir are these great public dangers
to be averted ?
Are
[ 102 j
Are we permanently to garrison all our Islands
with troops numerous enough to defend them
against these new means of invasion, which wi.1
be perpetually in their vicinage? The whole
standing army of Great Britain, would pro-
bably be too small for the purpose; and the ra-
vages of disease would require its triennial re-
newal. A land-press would be necessary, to re-
cruit those fatal garrisons ; for death would re-
duce our regiments, faster than voluntary en-
rolment could supply them with new levies.
‘* But our Fleets,” it may be said, “ our ever
victorious Fleets, are an adequate security.” The
most obvious and unanswerable objection to this
ground of confidence is, what I shall presently
consider, the enormous and ruinous waste, not
only of the wealth, but the maritime force, of the
country, which such a scheme of permanent de-
fence in that climate would involve. But those
who think our widely dispersed sugar colonies
could be effectually defended by naval forcealone,
against dangers threatening so continually, and
from so many neighbouring points, as in the case
now under consideration, have paid very little
attention tothe history of West India warfare, or
to the general nature of maritime defence.
.. [ believe that were any one of our brave and
intelligent sea officers to be asked his opinion on
this point, the answer would be, that he would
not engage with the strongest British squadron
that.
f 103 ]
that ever cruized between the tropics, permas
nently to prevent under the circumstances here
supposed, the invasion of Jamaica alone. Nor
do I speak here with any view to opposition by 4
hostile fleet large as that lately dispatched from
France ; but desire the admission only, that there -
will be in the harbours of St, Domingo, vessels or.
boats of any kind capable of transporting troops
across the calm and narrow channel which di-
vides that Island from Jamaica; For with naval
means contemptible like. these even, an in-
vading army, might be wafted over by night
to its destined point, eluding the vigilance,
or by the aid of known winds and currents,
mocking the pursuit, of the best conducted
squadron.
By detailing geographical circumstances which
are sufficiently known, it would be easy to
prove the difficulty of defending by a naval}
force alone the coasts of a West Jndia Island,
But this detail would be tedious, and I conceive
unnecessary. The fallibility of that species of
defence every where, against an enterprising enes
my; has in some degree been practically proved
by the incidents of the late way, and is pretty -
generally admitted; but it was demonstrated in
cases moye directly in point, by the West India
conquests of the French under the Marquis de
Bouillie in the war preceding the last.
If any one supposes that these Islands can
i ae be
[ 108 ]
bé efféctually covered by a superior, or even
an unresited, fleet; let him explain the reason
why Guadaloupe from its re-conquest by Vic-
tor Hugues, to the end of the late war, was
sucha nuisance as it is well known to have been,
to our trade in the Charribbean seas. Near 30
English pennants were at one tin.- flying in
the neighbourhood of that Island, and avow-
edly ordered to blockade it: And that the at-
tempt was not long or closely prosecuted, could
only have arisen from the early discovery of its
impracticability ; for no enterprise to be com-
pared to this in importance, demanded or en-
gaged, the services of his Majesty’s ships on that
station. ‘Our men of -war in fact were rarely, if
ever out of sight, of the harbours of: that hos-
tile colony; and after the glorious capture of
La Pique they found:no enemy bold enough to
engage them: yet supplies of every kind en-
tered the ports of Guadaloupe, and its priva-
teers continually sallied out, to commit depre-
dations on our commerce, and returned with
their prizes in safety. Victor Hugues at the
. Same time sent out from this Island more than
one petty armament, against our colonies, and
those of our allies. It would be alibel on the
‘gallant British Admirals, who successively com-
manded on that station, to admit these facts,
and at the same time to assert, that naval force
alone can be expected effectually to preclude
the invasion of Jamaica; an Island the defence
of.
re ee ee Ee
| 105 ]
of which would be liable to the same general
geographical difficulties, with the blockade of
Guadaloupe, and which has a circuit of acces-
sible coast, vastly more extensive.
Let it be considered however that we shall not
in the case supposed, have only a single Island to
cover or to blockade, as was the case during a
large portion of the late war, when Guadaloupe
was almost the sole naval station of importance
in the hands of the enemy to demand the vigi-
lance of our fleets, in the West India seas; or from
which invasion could be apprehended. Widely
different will be the work of shutting up the
enemy in the ports of all the different and
much dispersed colonies whence his new found
force may menace, including the wide-spread
shores of St. Domingo; or that of guarding by
a naval force all our numerous Islands that will
be continually in danger of invasion. For this
arduous purpose, it would be indispensable that
large squadrons should be maintained at the same
time, on many different stations, from which
they could not soon or easily be united; from
Barbadoes in the 59th, to Jamaica in the 77th,
degree of west longitude.
Have we even, any reasonable ground to pre-
sume, that our entire mastery of these seas will
in a future war be wholly undisputed ? That our
naval furce if collected, will be always superior
in strength, as well as in courage and skill, to any
hostile fleet that can be brought to encounter it,
we
[ 106 ]
we may indeed safely conclude; but that France.
will be unable to maintain in any quarter, a fleet
sufficient to protect an invading armament
against any one of our divided squadrons, is
surely too much to be relied upon. Able to choose
her point of attack, she will naturally select it
where we are weakest; and were the war to lie
only between St. Domingo and Jamaica, it
might not be too much to affirm that places of
descent could be chosen, in the passage to which
a covering fleet could not intercept the invaders,
without either encountering fearful odds by an
irrecoverable dispersion, or leaving other parts of
the Island open and defenceless.
If more exact ideas of such nautical difficulties
are desired, a reference to the official accounts of
the many sea engagements in the West Indies,
during the American war, but especially during
the active campaigns of 178], and 1782, may
amply supply them,
These observations might perhaps suffice to
prove, that our wooden walls would bean inade-
quate and precarious safeguard, against the dan-
gers now in contemplation, _.
But the most disheartening circumstance still
remains. For in either of the events supposed,
these new dangers will be of a permanent, unrer
mitting nature; and consequently will require
continual preparation for defence,. Whether
we shall have to stand on our guard, against ay
independent
[ 107 ]
independent negro state, or against free negroes
under the government of France, or against the
extraordinary means of offensive war that a
counter-revolution would necessarily place in
the hands of our old enemy, the peril will be
such as to threaten us every moment; and
must impend over our colonies, as long as the
same sources of belligerent strength, stand op-
posed to the interior imbecility of our own pos-
sessions. |
It is not an occasional effort of the Republic
in that distant field that we shall have to meet
by cotemporary exertion; but perennial dangers,
against which our means of defence must be
equally permanent, and kept up without inter-
mission.’ Even during peace, they will.scarcely
be less necessary than in war; for unless the
enemy could be bound to give us six months no
tice previously to the drawing of -hissword, de-
fensive armaments could not cross the Atlantic
before our most valuable colonies would be lost.
The question therefore, is not, what security
might be obtained, by means of such a fleet or
such an army as we might send to that distant
quarter for a single campaign, or on the spur of
some short emergency; but what reliance can
be placed on such garrisons, and such stationary
‘squadrons, as we could afford constantly to
maintain there. 7 |
Without
f 108 |
Without presuming to calculate the value of
Jamaica, and the other sugar colonies, and only
assuming that it is something short of the full
value of his Majesty’s European dominions, in-
cluding our constitution, our liberties and our
national independence; I may infer that we
cannot afford to protect these colonies at the
expence of ruining our navy; and if not, to
station permanently there fleets large enough
for the purpose in question, would not be an
allowable, supposing it might be an effectual
expedient. It is reported, Sir, that you have
dispatched a naval force to Jamaica, strong
enough. to cope, if needful, with*the united
squadrons of France and Spain which pre-
ceded it. If such bethe fact, I condemn not
the precaution: but every British heart must
lament its necessity—One powerful enemy,
diseas2, our brave tars will be sure to be as-
sailed by, in that fatal region; and his ravages
will not. be the less destructive, because they
may have no other foe to encounter. The hope
of booty or of glory, the interest of a chace,
or the looking out fora hostile sail, will no longer
aid their spirits against the gloomy spectacle of
sickness and death among their mess-mates,
and the enervating influence of the climate..
. The exemption of the French marine from the
samed estructive evils, would aggravate the na-
tional
L 109 Jj
tional mischief of sucha scheme of defcnce, if
we should be driven to it as a permanent system.
Without keeping a single ship of the line in the
West Indies, perhaps even without a hostile in-
tention, the Republic would have the important
advantage of diverting and consuming our na-
val force, as well in peace as in war.—We should
have to feed this Minotaur with our best blood
continually.—We should probably be obliged to
sciid out every year to be preyed on by tropical
diseases, more seamen as recruits, or more entire
new ships-companics to supply the waste of
death, than were ever annually consumed before
in our most bloody ffiaritime wars, and in all the
collective services of our marine.
When the.mind contemplates this dreadful
sacrifice, every other price to be paid for the
future protection of our sugar-colonies seems of
little account:—we sufficiently discern how well
Africa will be avenged; and how probably those
colonies, for the sake of which we have hugged
fondly to our bosoms that deformed monster.
the Slave Trade, after its fiightful aspect has
been laid bare before the eye of the national
conscience, may soon by a righteous Providence
be made the sources of our humiliation and
ruin.
And yet Sir, to you as the Steward of the
National Purse, I ought to add the important
remark
f 110 ]
remark, that such great and enduring efforts of
defensive preparation would not be less fatal to
our finances, than to the lives of our brave sol-
diers and seamen.—Did the Islands grow not
only sugar but gold, they might be bought too
dear; and. the peopie ‘of this country might
grudge to give for the defence of those colonies
another tenth of their incomes.
Even another income tax indeed would pro-
bably not long: suffice for the new and enormous
demands of these distant services. Nay, if we
may judge of their expensiveness on so large a
scale, by a reference to the charges of compara-
tively trivial establishments*hitherto maintained
in that quarter, all the reniaining resources of
taxation in Great Britain, would scarcely be
able long to supply this vast and unprecedented
drain. The manufactures and agriculture of
this Island, the produce of our Colonies them-
selyes, the rich commerce of the East, and all
the other tributes, which British industry and
enterprise levy through a thousand channels,
from the whole civilized globe, in aid of our na-
tional revenue, might be devoted to West India
security, and yet cevoted in vain:—numerous,
various, and extensive, though they are, all might
be absorbed in this insatiable gulph, without
lessening the force of its devouring vortex.
“ Charybdin dico? Oceanus medius fidius
“« vin
L im j
“ wi» videtur, tot res, tam ‘dissipitas, tam dis-
“ tantibus in locis positas, tam cito, absorbere
** potuisse !”
We might throw the fate of our funds, into
the same scale with that of our N avy: while
France, by merely tossing thé sword of negro
freedom, or negro force, into the other, would
make it still preponderate,
Iam, Sir, &c. &c
LETTER
LETTER IV.
Sir,
Or the task which I
prescribed to myself at the outset, one part only,
but certainly not the least important, remains
to be accomplished. .
I have endeavoured to unveil the true nature,
and to point out the most probable immediate
effects, of the French expedition; and have
shewn, though with powers very far inferior to
the important work, the new and alarming dan-
gers to which in every possible event of the
contest between France and her Colonial Ne-
groes, the Western wing of our Empire will be
exposed. It remains to enquire, as I proposed to
do in the last place, “ What measures should
these prospects suggest, to the prudence of the
British Government ?”
If
[ lis ]
If our approaching situation in the West
Indies is likely to be thus petilous, can’ that
situation be averted by any means in our power
té apply? Or if inevitably at hand, is there any
preparative measure by w hich its evils may be
palliated ?
That we cannot attempt to control the mea-
sures which France may think 1c to adopt for
the government of her Colonies, is sufficiently
obvious. To my mind, and I would hope Sir,
to your's, it is no less clear, that her hostile or
coercive measures ought not to be directly or
indirectly assisted by this country; but that we
ate bound by the plainest rules df policy, if not
also in justice towards Toussaint, to obseive a
strict neutrality. Actively to obstruct the French
operations, would be to provoke a new war, but
to further them, would only be to hasten, per-
haps eventually to augment, the jeopardy of our
own Colonies; and were our interference even to
produce no worse effect, than that of exciting
against us the hatred and enmity of the Ne-
gtoes, I should regard it as a disddvantage
not to be counterbalaaced, by the acquisition
of a claim on the precatious gtatitude of
France.
An insidious policy like that which our old ene-
my practised against usin our quarrel with Ame-
tlca, would ill suit the character of Great Britain,
Let us disclaim therefore every idea of secretly
I fomenting
[ 14 ]
fomenting or prolonging the impending contest.
But let us discern our own interest as well as
our duty. better, than to assist in hastening its
termination. Though the protraction of discord
or civil war in Guadaloupe and St. Domingo, is
what humanity may regret, it is the best politi-
cal hope of the British interests in the West
Indies. It will postpone at least, the perils of
our Leeward Islands and Jamaica, and the call
for arduous efforts to defend them, When the
labors of the Republic end, our own must im-
mediately commence.
It is not impossible even, that if a sanguinary
contest should be long maintained between the
Mother Country and her: black Colonists, the
breach like that between Great Britain and Ame-
rica may grow too wide to be closed, and a final se-
paration may be the issuc; and though this would
be a case pregnant enough with danger, yet an
independent Negro State, would certainly be a
less terrible neighbour to the British Sugar Co-
lonies, if irreconcilably hostile to France, than if
under her influence, and willing to promote her
views.
That the suppression of Negro liberty is not
less the cause of Great Britain than of France,
is a proposition which our Creole fellow-subjects
very naturally wish to maintain; but a British
Minister will pause before he admits its truth, and
must feel that at least there are sacrifices at the
expence
1 115 J
expence of which that cause ought not to be pro-
moted. He will therefore do well to remember,
that to accelerate the pacification of St. Do-
mingo, would be to place more specdily at the
disposal of the French Government at least
60,000 most formidable troops; to which Guada-
loupe and Cayenne would probably add near
20,000 soldiers of the same ‘escription; not to
mention the great European force by this time
arrived in the Islands: and it will behove him
to consider what reasonable ground of reliance
we have that this vast force will be afterwards
disbanded, so as not to continue to be a mine
under the foundations of our West India domi-
nion, charged, and ready to be exploded, at the
pleasure of the Republic.
To the planters I admit that invasion will be
less terrible by not bringing enfranchisement in
its rear; but to the British empire at large, it
will be small consolation that the tree of liberty
is not planted along with the tri-coloured stand-
ard, if those rich colonies are to be added ta
the dominions of anenemy. The evil in a pub-
lic view, will not be less, by their passing unim-
paired in agricultural wealth, and commercial
importance into the hands of ‘so potent a rival.
Let not self-interested voices then, however
loud, and however specious their representa-
tions, prevail upon you to depart from the
straight course of a sincere and exact neutra-
; lity
exis!
sa iaompn spp ana meeiblag
{ u6 ]
lity. Do not contribute to hasten that perilous
position of our national interests in the West
Indies, which civii war in the French colonies
only can suspend ; and which at best will far out-
grow your means of defensive preparation. . Let
not the plausible terms of “ repressing rebellion,”
“curbing the revolutionary spirit,” or whatever
other glosses may be used to disguise the true
nature of the impending contest, induce you
to assist in building a scaffold in the new world,
for that ambition which has already raised so co-
lossal a fabric in the old.
With the moral’ merits of the question be-
tween the two parties, we have no concern; nor
is it clear that did they stand at our judgement
seat, the cause of the Republic would be found
50 just, as has been of late industriously repre-
sented by some whom dread of negro liberty. has
made on this occasion her advocates. But of this,
weare certain, that supposing it right in France
to re-establish by her arms, that bondage which
by her laws she abolished, we can have no duty
in the case superior to that of watching over our
own interest and safety: nor is it less clear that
the further extension of her power is an evil, as
inuch at least to be dreaded, as the independence
or freedom of the negroes; and that therefore as
she can give no effectual security for not using
to our damage her approaching means of an-
noyance, it would be madness in us to accclerate
a crisis
ae |
a crisis that may place them entirely in her
hands, Ina word, for the re-establishment of
order in the French Colonies, we cannot afford
to hasten that insecurity of our own which may
oblige us to hold them in future, as tenants at
will to the Great Nation.
I will insist no further on a point of ‘policy,
which with many, may appear too clear to have
needed illustration. That you Sir, view it in the
same light I shall be happy to discover by your
measures ; but let me repeat, that a passive line of
conduct in his Majesty’s Government will pro-
bably not suffice to ensure the neutrality of our
Colonies; of which the recent aid given to La-
crosse, in some of our Windward Islands is if
report may be credited,* a striking indication.
Of active precautionary measures that may be
taken, while the dangers that so awfully threaten
our Colonies are yet suspended, I would next
briefly speak.
That exterior means of defence can no longer
be relied upon as formerly, has I trust been suii-
ciently shewn. They would be certainly inefti-
cacious; unless provided on a scale much larger —
than could without ruin to the general interests
of the empire be long maintained. But the con-
* Since this sheet was put to press, it is reported that ano.
ther instance of this kind has occurred at Jamaica; where a
bare.faced annulling of recent engagements with Toussaint, is
said to have been the first fruits of the notification of Peace
with France, ' ;
sideration
f us ]
sideration of expence apart, our Islands could
not in their present state of interior imbecility,
be effectually defended against the new and ever
threatening means of invasion which, in either
of the cases we have contemplated the Republic
would certainly possess, by the arms of the Mo-
ther Country alone. Those new powers of hosti-
lity, being indigenous in the French Colonies,
would be too abundant and vigorous, to be op-
posed by the scanty and feeble exotics of Euro-
pean growth, heretofore imported into our own,
To contend with the Republic between the Tro-
pics, without a large portion of the same home-
made belligerent force, would be like beating up
for recruits against Cadmus, who could raise
armies in a moment from the ground,
“Ts it necessary then that large bodies of negra
troops, should be raised and maintained in Ja-
maicaand our other Islands?” If we would long
retain the sovereignty over them ; if we would
prevent their soon swelling the dominions of the
French Republic ; that expedient, objectionable
and hazardous though during the present situa-
tion of their brethren in those Islands it may be,
must I think be adopted.
- To such a system of defence, were it not a
matter of strict necessity, there are I admit some
serious objections; and the planters, even under
thepresent circumstances, may be expected pretty
strongly to oppose it. If the enrolling the small
negro force which at an arduous crisis of the late
war
[ 19 J
war was very prudently raised, gave gencral un-
easiness in our colonies; how much more would
the placing in them permanent garrisons of the
same dreaded soldiery, powerful enough to guard
against these new dangers of invasion, be a sub-
ject of disquietude and alarm! It cannot excite
surprize that the white colonists greatly distrust
such protectors; between whom and the slaves
there must necessarily be the closest sympathy,
and often the nearest domestic connections and
attachments ; for it is impossible that the black
soldier should regard the extreme and degrading
bondage of his brethren without disgust ; nor is
it easy to reconcile with that sense of honour in-
separable from the profession of arms, and which
while it excites, becomes also a necessary check,
upon the military spirit, the contempt and abhor-
rence hitherto attached to the colour of his skin
by the people of whom he is to become a defender.
By the colonial politician, it would by no
means be thought atrivial objection, that this
complexional opprobrium would be lessened; for
however absurd and unjust it may appear to Eu-
ropean ideas, he approves and cherishes the pre-
judice; as a wholesome aid to subordination, and
a cement of the master’s authority. Nor canI
in candour affirm, that the existing system, de-
rives no support or security from this source: on
the contrary must admit, that had not nature im-
printed on the skin of the negro an indelible and
striking mark of distinction from his master, or
had
[ 120 ]
had not prejudice converted it into a badge of
infamy, as well as of servitude, the abrupt and
monstrous disproportion of social condition be-
tween the white and black inhabitants of the
colonies, would either not have been formed, or
could not so long have been maintained. But
while we admit, that to create a military order
out of the abject cast, where there are only twa
classes of society, divided by the immeasurable
distance between British liberty and the absence
of every social right from each other, would not
be unattended with danger; there is surely room
to hope, that this establishment if successful,
would gradually tend to the peaceable meliora:
tion of the social edifice; not only by softening
the prejudices which stand obstinately in the
way of improvement, but by giving such ‘inter:
nal means of supporting a vigorous police, as
might lessen the danger of innovation
The ground of necessity however is that on
which the plan of defence may best be recom:
mended, and the only one upon which the plan-
ters can be expected 1 to accede to it; and if
there be any truth in the remarks which J}
have made upon the physical powers of negroes,
opposed t to those of Europeans in a hot climate,
it is undeniable that this resort is not only
necessary to save the lives of our soldiers and
seamen, but to attain the end for which they
have been hitherto sacrificed so freely. While
encountered only by the best foreign soldiers of
"the
f 121 j
the temperate zone, our brave regiments may be
expected to conquer in any field, however disad-
vantageous, as has recently been proved in
Egypt; but they aremen, and must yield to con
stitutional superiorities so many and so formi-
dable as those with which they would now have
to conflict in West India war; assailed as they
would at the same time be by tropical diseases,
and out-numbered to a fearful excess *.
Since at every step of our progress in this in-
quiry, the extreme and unnatural bondage in
which the great majority of the inhabitants of
those ivsiutdns Islands is held, presents some
view of danger, or some obstacle to necessary
measures of defence; is there no possibility, it
may be asked, of going to the root of every evil
at once, and strengthening our colonies in the
most effectual way, by interior reformation?
That a reformation of that shocking and op-
probrious system is loudly called for, by every
duty which the Christian, or even the philoso-
pher, acknowledges ; by every principle which po-
liticians of all parties, or of any party, profess to
hold wise or sacred; is indubitably true. But
unhappily, there has been hitherto no disposi-
* Since these sheets were prepared for the press, I have
heard, to my aftonishment, that the black regiments raised
during the war are to be immediately disbanded. If so, it is
a strong proof at once of the prevalence, and the infatuation, of
West india counsels,
tion,
[ 122 ]
tion, and there may now perhaps not be sufficient
opportunity, to make it.
There was a time, Sir, and to look back on it
may not be useless, when such happy reforma-
tion might have been insured. Already I am
firmly convinced, its progress would have been
‘great; and a foundation would have been laid,
‘whereupon at this hour of danger a system of in-
terior defence of the most substantial kind might
have been speedily and safely erected. 1 allude
to the first efforts made in parliament for an abo-
lition of the slave trade; which I fully agree
with its promoters in thinking would have been
the surest and easiest mean of correcting all the
evils attendant upon West India bondage. Had
this great: measure been adopted, even at the
period limited for it by the votes of the Com-
mons in 1792, very different indeed, would have
probably been the present situation of our
islands. Perhaps the day is at hand when this
retrospect will furnish an impressive lesson; but
it is not yet arrived; and nations, like indivi-
duals, seem fated to he taught by experience
alone, the inseparable conncction between mo-
rality and true wisdom. :
That the abolition of the slave trade, would
now be in time to avert the impending mischief,
is more than I venture to affirm, supposing
even that in the present temper of parliament
it were a measure to be immediately expected.
Nor
[ 193 ]
Nor dare I with any confidence hope, that even
the perilous prospect now opened will lead to
more direct measures of reform; knowing as Ido,
how strongly they will be oppused by the private
interests, and even the urgent individual neces-
sities of the planter. -For without now entering
upon a subject too wide for incidental discussion
in a work like the present, I must here affirm a
truth, of which though disputed by abolitionists,
the ownersof West India estates in general are but
too conscious “ that the present large profits of
a successful sugar plantation could not be ob-
tained, if the condition of the slaves were to be
effectually improved.”
Would to God that the interest of the master
were really so involved in the well being of the
slave, as has been asserted and admitted in Pariia-
ment! With his comparative well-being indeed,
within such varieties as are to be found in the
existing practice, it may and docs comport; for
self-interest has certainly by long experience
discovered the lowest degree of subsistence, and
the highest degree of labor, generally consist-
ent with the preservation of life, and the capa-
city of regular work; and the limits, thus as-
rertained have formed an average standard of
treatment, from which a master certainly cannot
deviate on the selfish side, without finding by
rapid mortality, and the ruin of his gang, that
his avarice was -short-sighted and unwise.
But
[ 124 ]
But I speak of reformation that is not only to
prevent the abuses arising from mistaken selfish-
ness, cr from the necessities of indigent masters
in particular cases; but to improve.the general
standard, in point of comfort and happiness; to
diminish the ordinary exaction of labor, which
is) far too great, and to increase the ordinary
subsistence, which is far too small, on even the
best regulated estates ; and it is of such improve-
ments that I reluctantly fee: it a duty to say, a
due melioration of the lot of the numerous hus-
bhandmen would not leave a small West India
farm to yield the splendid income it now does ta
the successful planter*.
Buthowever inveterate, anddeeply rootedin that
ohstinate motive, scif-interest, the present practice
may: be, theextremes to which it has grown cannot
I firmly believe, be much longer maintained. Re-:
volution in the French Islands has effected what
the abolition of tue slave trade might have more
-heppily performed. It has created an indispen-
sable necessity for relaxing the chains of this
* The probability and the importance of this fact may not
suggest themselves at first sight, to those who are ignorant of
the large proportion the number of workmen bears to the ex.
tent of the soil in West India husbandry, and of the general
mode of their maintenance, One negro to every acre of land
is not more than a due proportion, for sugar estates in the old
Islands, and they are chiefly fed and clothed by provisions and
cloths imported from North America and Europe.
3 extreme
[195 J
extreme and brutalizing bondage, and improving
the condition of the slaves. — [ will not say,
indeed that it is impossible that our _ planters
should find an alternative; for I believe Buona-
parte to be at present a sincere partizan of their
favorite system ; and it is perhaps possible, though
very unlikely, that he may be able to arrest the
progress of negro freedom; but between such
improvement, and the holding their plantations
under the dominion of France, they will soon
be driven to choose, Yes Sir, immediate reform
or speedy loss of dominion, is the alternative
now clearly set before us in the West Indies,
** But of what nature are the changes which
may effectually correct the evils of the present
system; and that, speedily enough, to substitute
internal strength and security for internal weak-
ness, before the approaching danger arrives?” I
anit that so compleat a reverse is not to be
rapidly effected, without considerable difficulty
and hazard.—Such resormation however, is per+
haps not impracticable, if sincerely and earnestly
attempted ; and were the present sacrifices es-
sentia. to such an enterprise to be cordially
inade, it might still possibly be crowned with
timely success, | syed
No such paltry ostensible regulations how-
«ver, as those with which some West India as-
semblies have lately amused the English public
will
[ 196 ]
will be now of any avail! The miserable mockery
of laws whose injunctions no one will enforce,
and the breach of which can be ascertained only
by the offenders themselves, will here produce
no good, except that of convincing the impartial
and considerate how much legislative interposi-
tion is needed. The work to be really useful
roust go far deeper; and to speak out clearly, the
state of the negroes must be gradually, but fun-
damentally, changed, in all those essential pro-
perties of their bondage, but especially in that
dreadfui peculiarity of it, to which in the early
part of this address I have called your atten-
tion.
While Slaves are not only the absolute, ven-
dible, property of the master, but fed, worked,
anc whipped at his discretion, the protection of
the law, were any such sincerely provided, and
any prosecutor fowid hardy enough to enforce
it, would be like the redress bestowed by the
Knight of La Mancha on the Peasant’s boy,
who after that famed avenger of wrongs had
quitted the scene of discipline, was tied up again
to the tree, and expiated together with the first
offence, the more grievous one of having invited
by his cries such dangerous and mortifying in-
terference. Nor is it less apparent that while
these poor Beings are worked under the whip of.
the driver, it will be equally vain to attempt to
raise
{ 197 ]
raise their characters into a fitness to be governed
by municipal laws, or treated like rational
agents *. |
Of the means by which these great radical
evils might be removed, long reflection, aided by
a residence of many years in the West Indies
has given me some specific ideas; which were
there.a hope of their being adopted in practice
1 should feel it a most pleasing labor to unfold.
But their development here, while it would
swell this long address to a most unreasonable
bulk, would I fear be perfectly useless. Till
‘ore satisfactory confirmation of these opinions cannot
be desired than the testimony of the late Mr. Bryan Edwards ;
who in speaking of the attempt to regulate the exercise of the
‘Master's absolute authority over his slaves by the Code Noir
of Louis XIV, and of its inefficacy at St. Domingo, assigns
these reasons for its failure. «* In countries where slavery is
established, the leading principle on which government is
supported is fear, or a sense of that absolute coercive ne-
cessity which leaving ne choice o;° action, supersedes all question
of right. ‘<t is im vain to deny that such actually is,
and necessevily must be the case of all countries where sla-
very is.tlowed, Every endeavour therefore to extend po-
sitive 105%) ts men in this state, as between one class of
people and tie other, is an attempt to reconcile inherent
“6 contradictions, and to blend principles together which ad-
© mit not of combination.” (Hist. of St. Domingo, chap. t.
page 11.) Itis scarcely necessary to observe, that by “ go-
vernment’? Mr. Edwards clearly meant the private govern-
ment of the Master; and by ‘ absolute coercive negessity,’®
the coerion of the whip.
some
f 128 ]
some disposition is shewn towards reformation
in point of principle, it would be idle to treat of
its details.
That the colonial assemblies will never heartily
set about this interesting work, I am well con-
vinced ; and who indeed that knows any thing
of their general composition, or has attended to
the uniform style of their legislation in regard to
negroes, can hope the contrary !—To them how-
ever, Parliament has thought it right hitherto
to commit the fate of this large and most help-
less body of his Majest: ’ ~ujects, (for such, as
they often answer with i.. ir lives for breaches
of his laws, I may surely take leave to call
them) and perhaps even the awakening nature
of the present emergency, may not have force
enough to sustain against the clamours of a too
powerful Party, the wisdom of an opposite con-
duct.
I am aware indeed that the constitutional
tight of Parliament to legislate for the Colonies
on this subject, has been denied or qusntionse | in
the House of Commons.
The objection was not less extraordinary, than
a threat or insinuation with which it was said to
have been accompanied, that of resistance by
the white colonists (risum teneatis ? )—resist-
ance against the Mother Country, whose pro-
tection bestowed at an immense expence not
only of treasure but blood, alone can suve them
a single
ol on a ee
[ igo j
a single day, not only from foreign enemies, but
from the continual dangers of chat wretched in-
terior system which they so pertinaciously de-
fend!!!—The palsied bed-ridden patient might
as rationally threaten violence to his nurse, fot
putting sustenande into his mouth:
But if the Islands have justice in their claim
to exclusive legislation in this case, their im-
becility ought not’ to deprive them of it--—Let
us therefore: briefly enquire (it may be highly
useful'at the present juncture to do so) what is
the foundation of this pretension ?
The power to make laws to bind the Colonies
has been constantly exercised by Parliament,
from their first settlement, down to the present
period; and though the general subjects*of such
laws, have been navigation, commerce and re-
venue; yet they have sometimes extended to
matters of municipal regulation unconnected
with those titles; as for instance, the Stat.
5. Geo. 2. cap. 7. fur the mote easy recovery of
debts.
To such acts of authority no serious objection
seems to have been made, till the ‘present Reign;
when disputes with the American Colonies arosé,
from the exercise, not so much of legisla-
tive power in general, as from the extending it
to the purpose of internal taxation. An Act
commonly called the Declaratoty Act (6. Geo, 3,
cap. 12.) was thereupon made, as a kind of Par-
K liamentary
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{ 130 ]
liamentary Manifesto, asserting the right to le-
gislate for the Colonies in all cases whatever.
Afterwards, in the year 1778, it was thought
prudent, with a view to conciliation, that this ob-
noxious Statute should be in some measure coun-
terpoised by the Act 18. Geo. 3. cap. 12.; by
which it is declared, that Parliament will not
impose any tax to be payable in the Colonies,
‘¢ except only such as it may be expedient to im-
pose for the regulation of commerce,” &c. But
the Declaratory Act, offensive though it had
proved, continued notwithstanding all the try-
ing circumstances of the American contest, and
still continues, unrepealed.—Though the exercise
therefore of the dangerous right of interior
taxation was relinquished. by Parliament, even
that sacrifice to Peace was not mad -vithout an
express reservation of the right o impose in-
ternal taxes, for certain purposes ; and the latter
Statute does in effect mantain the same general
constitutional right of legislation, in all cases
wherein it is not expressly renounced; that was
universally asserted by the Declaratory Act.
Had Parliament even yielded the exercise of
taxation, not as a voluntary concession to the
Colonial Legislatures, but as an admission of
‘their exclusive right, to raise internal taxes; no
sound argument could be drawn from that .ad-
mission, against the right of legiz:ation in alt
other cases, Foy, as a stout Champion of Colo-
nial
[ 131 J
nial Privileges has observed, “there is a: material
* distinctiow between a Power in the Mother
** Country to impose taxes, and a power to make
‘* laws ‘in general, for the interjor government
** of her Colonies ; and the latter may well exist
“ without the flenmees I cannot quote a better
authority for this distinction, than one whichMy.
Bryan Edwards himself has qugted with appro-
hation—that of the late Lord Chatham; who is
cited as having used the following words, “Taxa-
“ tion is no part of the governing or legislative
** power. Taxesare a yoluncary gift and grant of
** the Commons alone. In legislation, the three
** Estates of the Realm are alike concerned; but
* the concurrence of the Peers and the Crown.
toa tax, is only necessary to clothe jt in the
“ form of a law. The gift. and grant js of
“ the Commons alone*. The Declaratory
Act therefore is not only unrepealed, but unim-
peached in its general principle, by the utmos¢
‘concession that the pressure of public difficul-
ties during the American quarrel could ex;
tort.
Nor was this celebrated Act the first that ge-
nerally and broadly asserted the right in ques;
“tion; for J cannot conceive a clearer or more
emphatic declaration of it than is contained in
the7th gnd 8h Wjll, JIL cap. 2g. sec, 9; whereby
Y History of the West Indies, by Mr, B. Edwards, vel, ii, $65,
all
se = eee ee Se : "oa :
SS
RA 99 Sy gee
ron oS
=
se
f 138 ]
all laws made in the coloities, repugnant to Eng-
lish statutes heigl ies: to or namihg = are
declare. to be ~oie'. x
Wie such statutes remain inh vepeatia: Tam
at‘a loss to conceive how this right, exercised
as it has been in numberless instances, from the
very ‘first settlement of ‘our Colonies, and as
well’ subsequently to, as before, the independ-
ency of North America, can be decently ques-
tioned in:Parliament.’. Yet if newspaper reports
may be’ rélied upon, it tiot only has|been denied
by some advocates forthe Slave Trade. in the
House of Commons, but men high in office have
deprecated its discussion as the “ stirring of a
delicate constitutional question 1.11? If so im-
portant-a right was thought too much: to re-
nounce for the preservation of America, and to
the Assemblies ‘of the great continental Colo-
niés? Dut’ wis asserted ind ‘maintained to the
endjin the face of rebellion; it seems strange
that complaisance to the petty legislatures'of the
Sugar Islands, ‘should: now‘lead -a Statesman to
spe rak of it in sede as a matter Hira ‘to
doubt. 5)
Were ‘it not for thi! uinthie consequence that:
such ‘laiguage, if really uttered;) may: have’
given to this? strange claim of exelusive iautho->
rity in the. Assemblies, I.should “not :thitik °it
worthy of further remark: but were there room
ari i lad OAM HT MENG NR
i
Aa
W!
Su
S¢l
thi
[ 133 *]
for doubt, it would’ perhaps be conclusive ‘to
say, that,,the great principle upon which the
‘North American Colonies asserted. their exclu-
sive right to interior legislation, does not fairly
apply to the case which we are considering; that
-of alaw to MELIORATE THE CONDITION OF
THE SLAVES.
The least resistible argument on the part. of
the Americans, was, that as they were not repre-
sented in the Pritish Parliament, and the mem-
bers of that. Assembly would not themselves be
‘bound by the laws which they might frame for
America, the being subjected to the unlimited
authority of the legislature of the Mother Coun-
try, would bereave the Colonists of the only se-
curity the unrepresented have against oppression ;
that of the law makers, being no less than their
-actual or virtual electors, subject in general to
‘the samé municipal duties or restraints which
they may impose on the rest.of the community.
But this consideration, if applied to the great
mass of the population of our Islands, the slaves,
will be found so far from warranting the same
practical conclusion, that it will make the ab-
surdity,' as wellas injustice, of excluding in fa-
vour of their masters the legislative authority
of Parliament, abundantly evident. Are the
enslaved,fegroes represented in the colonial ,as-
sembhiés ?;.gr, are the members-of those bodies: or
their, donstituents-subject to the same laws by
which
r 184
twhich this great class of the community is go-
veined? Are riot those Legislators, on the con-
‘trary, men who upon all questions touching the
private relatiofi of master and slave, are inter-
_ ested parties ; and who are even inversely to be
affected by the ptoposed law, instead of being
in the same mannet subject to it; since privilege
to the slaves must necessarily iri the same de-
gree be restraint upon the master; and fresh re-
trairit on them, were there roorn for it, increase
of his authority?
‘The West Intia Asseinblies then would claim
this concession denied to North America, in di-
réct opposition to the great principle of reason and.
justice on which it was in that case demanded.
They would be exclusive Legislators upon this
subject, though they are emphatically liable to
the very same objection, on account of which the
general concurrent legislation of Parliament in
the Colonies was most plausibly opposed.
It cannot here be fairly replied, “that the civil.
character of the slave is absorbed in that of the
master, by whom therefore he is sufficiently repre-
sented.” For the question supposes, that for the
purposes under consideration at least, he is in-
titled to the protection of laws against’ the
master himself; and the supposed doubt only is,
by ‘wliom those laws should: be inate!’ So far
therefore as this right extends, his divil chafacter
is not merged i in, but niust be considered as dis-
: tinct
[ iss ]
tinct, from that of the master. Heis admitted so
far to have claims on the legislative power of the
State; and the single question is whether Par-
liament is bound by constitutional principle, to
refer those claims to an assembly of masters, in
derogation of whose absolute authority they are
advanced, I maintain therefore Sir, that were
this claim of exemption from the authority of
Parliament as well founded as it is obviously the
reverse, the case of the slaves ought to form an
exception to it.
That the Imperial Legislature has an incon-
testable right to make laws for the government
of the Colonies, in some cases at least, is admit-
ted even by those who dispute the universality of
that right the most strenuously. ‘ The Colonies
(says Mr. B. Edwatds*) “readily admit they
** stand towards the British Legislature, in the
‘* degree of subordination, which implies every
“* authority m the latter, essential to the pre- °
“ servation of the whole; and to the mainte-
“‘ nance of the relation between a Mother Coun-
‘ try.and her Colonies,” And the same author
admits, that this constitutional right is not li-
mited by any known or general boundaries ; but
depends upon the nature of the particular cir-
cumstances that may call for its exertion. ‘To
“ ascertain (says he) ‘‘ the various contingen-
* History of the West Indies, vol. ii, $61,-2.
“ cles
L 6 |]
dies; and circumstances, wherein, on the prin-
* ciples stated, the British Legislature has, and
“ has not, a right to interpose, is perhaps im-
* possible; because circumstances may occur ta
‘‘ render its interposition necessary which can-
‘¢ not. be foreseen;”* and he cites Goyernor
- Pownall’s opinion to the same e‘fect.
Upon such concessions,’ unwilling and sparing
though they are, the right.of Parliamentary in-
terposition to reform the system of, slavery, can-
not well be denied ; for first, vve haye in this case
an. emergency of no triviat kind; and such as
might well justify the exercise of a superintend-
ing power reserved for difficult and. extraordi-
nary occasions. If to redress the wrongs, or ine-
liorate the deplorable condition, of seven-eighths
of his Majesty’s subjects in the! Sugar.Colanies,
when both reason and experience demonstrate
they have no relief. to expect: ftom ‘the Assem-
blies, and when their hard lot: is not without some
colour of reason as¢ribéed to Parliament: itself +
be not a purpose weighty and. necessary enough
to
* History of the West Indies, vol. ii. 365.
+ Of the Legislative sanction given by Great Britain to
the slave trade the anti-abolitionists have made great use ;
and it has been hastily inferred that the bondage of the Co.
Jonies has réceived thé stamp of the same authority ; but the
fact seems to be, that Par’ ment till the present zra, never
gnanrtins into what state the African exiles of which it autho.
rised
137 J
to justify such an interposition, I am ata loss
to fancy any circumstances that would in this
view sanction the exercise of this acknowledged
extraordinary power. If this be not really
** dignus vindice nodus,” let a stronger case be
defined. But secondly, here is also a case in
which the Mother Country has herself a most
important and direct interest, in the proposed
subject of legislation; and not only so, but to
use Mr. Edwards’s words, the reformation in
question is become necessary “to the preserva-
tion of the whole common interest,” and .o
the ‘maintenance of that relation” which sub-
sists between Great Britain: and these Colonies :
for that his Majesty’s sovereignty over them is
e wgered by the present condition of the
£...8, in consequence of the new situation of the
Fre1ich Colonies, has I trast been:demonstrated ;
nor ig it’ less clear that the Mother Country has
an interest in correcting abuses: of. which the
effects must fall with a most grievous pressure
‘rised. the deportation, were carried. From_the «colonial acts
of assembly no such information. could be obtained ; for how-
ever surprising it may appear, no positive law has. introduced
or defined this strange and unprecedented relation between
master and slave ; but its legality wholly rests, in all the Co-
lonies I am acquainted with, on a kind of lex non'scripta, or
custom, founded in the rudest period of their history, by the
barbarous Buccaneers who first settled the oldest of our West
Aadia Islands,
on
[ 138 ]
on the revenue and defensive resoutcts of tite
empire.
Indeed Sir, when I tegard the force of the
latter consideration, it seems hardly to be appre-
hended. that the objection i am combating will
ever again be advanced ; for surely the experi-
enceof the late war has sufficiently proved, had
it been doubtful before, that of a bad interior
system in our Colonies the penalties must chiefly
be burne:iby those who are represented in the
Imperial; Parliament: “What, during the kate ar-
duous cotitest, or at least after its two first cam+
paigns, so fatally diverted our efforts from Eu-
ropean to trans-Atlantic War, but the insecurity
of our West India Islands? And by what were
they chiefly cndangered but their own bad inte-
rior policy? There was I admit conflagration in
their neighbourhood, but the perii chiefly arose
from their own combustible texture. Except a
few misezableprivateers, ahostileilag was scarcely
to Le seen in their seas; and the governments of
the French Colonies were not in circumstances
to attempt invasion on any but the minutest scale.
If a few boats full of negroes were sent by Hugues
to Dominique, St. Vincents and Grenada, that
was the utmost extent of his offensive efforts; and
yet, what an enormous diversion of British force
was long produced by them! With how much
of our bravest blood,’ not indeed shed by the
sword, but fatally polluted by disease, were
these
[ 199 ]
these contemptible sparks extinguished! Hatl
not the great mass of the people in our Islands
been in a state that precluded all hope of fidelity,
the smaliest of those colonies might have bidden
defiancé to such feeble powers of invasion as the
enemy possessed.
Nor can it be said; that this was a péculiar
situation not likely to recur; unless all the pre-
mises opened in a fotmer part of this address
can be denied; or unless it can be demonstrated
that the infant Hercules of negro liberty will
be effectually slaughtered in his ciadle. On the
contrary, it has been proved that the weakness
of our own Colonial system, is likely to be con-
trasted by hostile energies still more powerful in
every future war.
Should then Sir, this essential right of legisla-
tion be still denied; should none of the other
considerations I have urged, suffice tc silence
self-interested objectors, I would produce to
th.m the enormous returns of mortality in our
fleets and armies; with the equally e:.ormous ac-
counts of West India expenditure; and bid
them read there the title deeds of this Parlia-
mentary authority, If more were still wanting,
I would request them to read the St. Vincent and
Grenada Loan Acts, now recently renewed, and
to calculate how much must be ultimately lost
to the nation, and how much ws added to the
public burthens, by raising at « most critical
and
[ mo }
and dist: :ssful period, the millions thereby lent
to repair:the effects of insurrection.
It would be monstrous to maintain that the |
Mother Country has no right to. correct. by
wholesome laws, evils by which she-is exposed to
such costly demands for protection and relief.
It iwould be tosay; that thée:planter has.a right
to raisé and maintain at pleasute.on his own land
% nuisance’ pestiferous to:the vital resources of
the empire ; and’ that Parliament has no right to
enter and abate it. Nay more; that the Mother
Countsy is bound to be his) insurer against his
private share of the damage that may ensue frony
his own wrong. Unless all this is to be conced-
ed, or in other words, unless the political: rela-
tion is to be reversed, the Mother Country. to
become dependent on the Colonies, and the peo-
ple of England to hold their power and. wealth
at the will of West India, Assemblies, you have-a
right to regulate the weight of those. costly.
chains, the stuff to repair which must be: your
gold, and. the anvils the keels. of your navy.
Perhaps there are some, who admitting the
Parliamentary right to be incontestable, may
question whether the exercise of it will be expe-
dient ; and may be disposed to say “the Insular
Assemblies best know the nature of the disease,
and how to apply the medy.”
Their superiority of judgement on, the subject
Twill admit when it shall.be proved to me that.
prejudice
[ 141
prejudice and self-interest are, ees ‘unfr iendly i io
fair inference, than local distance from the facts
in question.‘ But the wisdom of our laws has not
unfrequently proceeded | upon a different princi-
ple } as for example, 'when'theit favourite mode of
investigating truth by al jury of the vicinage is
broken chrough; on account of popular prej ilifllces
or partiality, in the hundred or county. I will
not pay our West India fellow ‘subjects the com-
pliment of Saying that they are fitter for impar-
tial deliberations, ‘while under the bias of real or
imagined self-interest, than a jury of English-
men. And were'it reasonable to give them stich
a preference in any case, the slightest knowledge
of their laws ‘would forbid the allowance of it in
the present.
Take into your hands Sir, the volun.zs of Acts
of Assembly of the different West il Islands;
and where you find “ negroes” or “slaves” in
the index, refer to ‘the Acts that relate. to ther
Till within the last few years, you will not find
in a century or more, @ single provision in these
Jaws tending to protect a class of men by far the
most numerous in those societies, from the i inju-
ries to which their situation myst always: have
exposed them: not one clause to limit the mas-
ter’s’ authority; not one ito punish its abuse:
With the exception of a provision ‘or’ two in
some of the Islands, against murder or mMaitning,
i recollect no instance of any law''to protect
the
{ 142 ]
the slave against the severity ef the worst of
owners; much less to guard him against those
more general and important sufferings, to which
his absolute dependence, especially upor an ava:
ricious. or indigent master, obviously si;bjected
hin, in the artjcles of labour and food...
Yet the slaves have been by no means forgot.
ten by these local legislatures. You will find
them on the contrary to have been a very fre-
quent subject. of attention: but where their
name occurs in the outset of .a section, you will
be sure to find stripes or death at the end of it.
That these poor bondsmen stood not in need
of laws to protect, as well as to punish them, will
hardly be supposed, even by the least considerate.
The recent laws of many of the Islands would
alone serve. to prove incontestably the reverse.
For since the subject of West India slavery hes
been brought so much under the notice of the
English public, and of Parliament, Acts of As-
seujbly have been passed, professing to control
in some very essential points, especially in regard
to the measure of food and of labqur, the master’s
before unlimited discretion,
But while such laws manifest the grossness of
former neglect, I am sorry to say that they prove
no genuine change of character jn the colonia]
legislatures.. Forno man possessed of the small-
est knowledge of the subject, can consider them,
without perceiving not only their utter inade;
quacy
[ “4s ]
quacy to the ends proposed, but the impossibilit
that their provisions, such as they in general are,
can be enforced. What their effects in Jamaica
have been indeed, I know not from any direct in-
formation: but am authorised to affirm, that at
the Leeward Islands. at: least, these new Acts
are a mere dead letter; and that not an instance
has occurred, in those Islands hitherto, of any
attempt to enforce them. I should be much
surprised to see the record of-a single convic-
tion upon them produced from any part of the
West Indies; and if that cannot be done, several
years after the enactment of such novel laws, and
upon so extensive a subject, the ommpliunion ig
sufficiently obvious.
Should Parliament decline the exercise of a
concurrent legislation from confidence in these
Assemblies, it would form a strong contrast with
its jealousy of them in other cases; where the
cause of distrust is less weighty. When the co-
lonia! purse of the Crown, or the interests. of
navigation, are concerned, there has not been
left to them even a concurrent power, of making
Jaws for their own internal government.
Various, and formidable, are the powers to be
exercised in the colonies by naval and revenue
officers under many acts of parliament; and
they are not rarely of a kind that seems pecu-
liarly to require the regulation or control of
some"
[ 44 ]
some authority nearer than Europe* yet ‘by
Stat. 7. & 8. Will. I1I. Cap. 29: Sec. 9. “alllaws,
“ by-laws, usages, or customs in the colonies,
“ against the provisions of that or anyother act
“of. parliament extending to: them” ate: ex-
pressly declared to be void. Nay more, the ex-
ecution of these laws is not entrusted to'the ordi-
nary courts of the colony, formed upon the model
of those at Westminster, and proceeding by a
course known to the constitution of England ;
but the jurisdiction is given to courts of admi-
ralty ; in which a single judge, appointed by the
Crown, and holding his office at the royal will,
decides both on the law and the fact without the
intervention of a jury f.
What Sir, is the reason, or the apology, for such
an exclusive legislature in these cases; exercised
as it has been without complaint, in a variety of
cases, even since the repeal of the Declaratory Act,
and aided by such an inroad upon general British
privileges? Distrust of the Assemblies; and of
the. ordinary courts and juries of these Islands ;
on account of their. particular interests, and on
account of their prejudices against those whole-
some restraints on their trade, which the parent
* See 18, and 14. Car. II. Cap. 11, and 7, and 8, Will, IIT.
Cap. 22. Sec. 6.
+ See Stat. 22. and 28. Car.JI. Cap. 26, Sec, 12. 4Gro. III.
Cap. 15, Sec. 41.
state
mY the 2 oh Si oe ce on *:
as
[ 45 ]
state for the common benefit thinks natenry
to maintain.
Such power is exercised without scruple from
regard to the public revenue, or even to the
private merchants of this country ; as in the
Stat. 5. Geo. II. cap. 7. which for the easier re-
covery of debts in the colonies due to indivi-
duals. here, makes an ex parte affidavit sent from
England, equivalent.in their courts te a viva voce
examination of witnesses between the’ parties *.
But
* This Statute also provided that lands and other real
estate and negroes in the colonies should be liable to the sims
ple contract debts of the owner, and might be taken in execu.
tion and sold in the same manner as personal estates. Upon
the injustice and cruelty of these provisions in respect of the
slaves, Mr. B. Edwards took occasion in his History of Ja-
maica, to remark very strongly, and to arraign the aboli-
tionists of inconsistency and want of feeling in not moving
for their repeal in parliament. The negroes, he observed, were
liable to be dragged from the estate on which they and their fa.
milies were established, and from all those little sources of com.
fort dependent on the soil, which good conduct and industry
might have obtained for them; to be separated from their
wives and children; to be sold to a stranger ; perhaps carried
into a foreign land to end a miserable existence: and to
‘be thus persecuted because ‘the master was unfortunate! (see
the very pathetic passage in his History of the West Indies,
wol. ii. cap. 4 page 154.) He adds ‘that the hard case is
‘* one that occurs in practice every day: that the statute
‘¢ was disgraceful to the national character and to huma-
«¢ nity and that it ought to be repealed ; and suggests, that the
6 negroes ought to be attached to the land and sold with'it.”” »
r Upon
f 146 ]
But when the reformation of a rank and invete-
rate system of evils, built up and cherished by
the
Upon these principles, Mr. Edwards, in the year 1797,
brought into parliament, a bill which passed into a law
(see 37, Geo. IIT. cap. 119.) with no small eclat to West India
humanity ; and discredit to the comparative negligence of aboli,
tionists, And how did this benevolent measure remedy the
evil? Why by vepealing the Statute 5. Geo. II. Cap. 7. as to
the NEGROBS, bat leaving it in force AS TO THE LAND.i. e, To
prevent the negroes from being torn from the estate they belong
to, the estate alone is to change masters; and they can no longer
be sold along with st, as was notoriously the former course of
proceeding when plantation negroes were sold under executions
atlaw!!! They must therefore not only quit their houses,
provision grounds, and other local comforts, with such of their
wives and children as belong to neighbouring estates ; but must
follow the fortunes of an insolvent master, who has no longer an
estate on which to place them ; and who must consequently either
hire them out to a stranger, a plan peculiarly hostile to their
welfare ; or transport them to settle new lands in some foreign
territory, and divide them from all the objects of their early.
attachments for ever ! !
Such is the humanity and wisdom of this boasted Act! the
single boon of parliament to a hapless race to whose industry
the nation owes so much, and who have such strong claims on
legislative protection!!! But let the English reader be re.
lieved !, No warm I can assure him has been actually done by
this Statute; which is so strangely at variance with its
own principle. The truth is, that long prior to the Act
5. Geo. II. the local laws of every West India colony we then
possessed, had made slaves liable to executions at law; and
that not generally, or with the land, but expressly i# pris
ority to the plaritation and other teal estate of the owner to
whom
[ 147 ]
the Colonial Assemblies themselves; a reforma-
tion which so dial motives oe justice, huma-
nity,
whom they befonged: and in every Island that we have ac.
quired since that Statute was made, Acts of Assembly have been
passed, adopting ‘in this respect the laws of the older colonies.
By their express provisions, and by the very words of their
writ of execution, land cannot be seized or sold, but in default
of slaves of value enough to satisfy the debt: so that the bar.
barous consequences pointed out by Mr. B. Edwards would
uniformly arise, were it not that the natural progress of in.
solvency among planters, provides a security against them.
Fortunately,‘long before an estate is taken in execution, the
land and ‘slaves ate.generally deeply mortgaged together, .and
the equity..of redemption of both is sold in such cases, in one
lot, to preserve the rights of the mortgagee; who is also
commonly in possession before a sale under an execution takes
place ; and as commonly is himself the poretiaeee of the equity
of redemption.
The truth therefore is, that chnagis West India estates are
very frequently .sold | by executions at law, the cruel effects
pointed out by Mr, Edwards are by no means so frequent as
he represented when he was thus loading the British Parlia.
ment with the sins of the Insular legislatures.
I ought in justice to, that writer, who,I.am sorry to find is
now removed from the lists of human controversy, to observe,
that he has :himeelf, in page 153, of ‘the book ..last cited, ad-
mitted the .grievance.in question ‘not to have been sriginally
created by parliament; but I wish he.had becz ingre explicit,
and shewn that existing Acts of Assembly were in truth the
only: operative laws on the subject. . I lament, that he is not
now living, .to contradict or admit the assertion, ‘* that not.
withstanding his strong reprobation of this part of the Insular
law,
[ 148 J
nity, and sound policy, demand from us, is
in question; Parliament, far from claiming the
sole:authority, is’ to forego, it seems, even the
exercise of a concurrent power; and on the
prayer ofthe poor negroes for that interposition
which. istheir only hope, is to say to these
apse
osieit Come cousin Angelo, |
In this. bal be impartial, be you judge
Of y your own cause! !”?
If the Insular Assemblies even had the best
inclination, to reform the interior system, they
are fot independent enough of the popular
voite, in those small communities in the bosoms
whereof they sit, to do their duty in this very
important branch of legislation. Could a ma-
- jority of enlightened men exempt. from, those
prejudices by which ancient and general abuses
are supported, be found in those representa-
law, and the general assent given to his opinions by the West
India interest in Parliament, while his bill was:in its progress,
not one of those Acts of Assembly bas yet been repealed or al.
tered. That executions at law are not rarely a source of ex.
treme injustice and cruelty to the human objects of sale, is
undeniable ; though not so often in the case of plantation slaves
as Mr. Edwards supposed ; but in general there is a much
greater calamity incident to their unhappy state than being
661d from an insolvent master; and West Indians will feel the
force of my meanings when I add “¢ it is the not being sold soon
eweugh,””
tive
[ 149 J
tive bodies; yet nu .aan I am sure who knows the
West Indies, or who has perused the volume of
human nature any where, will suppose the con-
stituents in general, much less the general body
of free inhabitants, to be of the same charac
_ter. Speaking from experience, I hesitate not
to affirm, that there is on the contrary as strong
vehement and obstinate a popular attachment to
all the extreme powers of the master in the West
Indies, as the most free and high-spirited peo-
ple in Europe ever manifested for then ancient
constitutional rights.
When therefore it is considered how closely in
these small societies, an Assembly man must
be drawn into contact with his electors, and
the free colonists at large; and how the mo-
mentous difference of complexion has there
eclipsed almost every other distinction, placing
all white men not in servile situations, nearly
upon a’ par, the difficulty of such legislators
effectually opposing themselves to the sense of
the mulJtitude, will be pretty apparent, Tha’
they should attempt to do so, it would be vain ta
expect ; that they should have courage to per-
severe, is still more hopeless.
To such mere pretexts of reformation as the re+
cent laws to which J have alluded, little indeed,
if any, popular opposition may have been raised;
for their want of practical force, as-well as their
utility in answering a certain purpose in thig
Country,
[ 150 J
Country, was pretty generally understood ; and
masters knew that they might laugh at the rod
without a hand with which they were menaced,
even had it not been a rod of feathers, But should
the Assemblies begin in earnest to control the
authority of the master, and improve the con-
dition of the slave, by provisions really operative,
and sanctions of which the strength should be
proportioned to the difficulties of bringing them
home to offenders; I know enough of West In-
dia communities to affirm that the law-makers
would stand in need of the firmness of martyrs,
and would possibly have to meet their fate.
But the Assemblies will never put the tem-
per of their constituents to so severe a trial.
They are themselves masters ; and the ulcer will
be tenderly touched, when the incision knife is
ii the hand of the patient.
The foundation then, Sir, on which alone I
deem it practicable to build the future security
of the sugar Colonies, is that of meliorating the
condition of the great mass of the people, and
converting them from dangerous enemies into
defenders, and this is only to be done by the ex-
ercise of the Legislative Authority of Parliament.
If through mistaken principles, of policy, -or de-
ference for an active and powerful party, that
right, and let me also call it that duty, shall be
still neglected, the slave system will continue to
. pea source of internal weakness and danger till
revolution
iy wmv
bod
[ 451 ]
revolution or foreign conquest become the well
merited result.
Till Parliament shall resolve to enter upon
this great and necessary work, it would be vain
to propose specific plans either of interior defence
or reformation; as they would certainly either
not be adopted by” the Assemblies, ox be
adopted only in such an elusory manner as to
frustrate the intended effect. The preceding
general hints therefore are the whole that I shall
for the present offer to your attention. When an
efficient moving power shall be obtained, it will
be time enough to consider how the parts of the
machine may be best constructed and applied.
There remains one very important and leading
object of this address, to which I have bitherto
forborn to advert.
To the West India possessions of Great Bri-
tain the Peace has now made a great and
very valuable addition. The large and fer-
tile Island of Trinidada, an Island compris-
ing perhaps 1500 square miles of the richest
territory between the tropics, has been added to
the crown of the United Kingdoms,
'“ What a mine of wealth has Spanish indo-
** lence left unopened in this luxuriant soil, of
** which scarcely a thousandth part perhaps has
“66
yet
[ 152 ]
¢ yet been putin tillage, nor one acre ina hun-
“ dred yet granted from the crown!* What
“ Jarge sums may be raised by the sale of these
“ lands! and what great additions made by their
* future produce to our imports and revenue!
** Let Trinidada only be placed on the same
“ footing, in point of constitution and laws, with
“* our other West India Colonies, and her ports
‘* be open to the slave trade; and British enter-
** prise will soon realise these golden prospects.
‘“¢ The uncleared lands will be purchased at high
** prices, by eager competitors; they will soon
‘“* be disencumbered of their timber, thrown open
**.to the sun, and broken by the hoe; the sugar
** cane will speedily cover with its most luxu-
* riant growth the whole surface of the Island ;
“and the produce will equal, if not exceed,
* the most abundant crops of Jamaica!”
Such are the dreams of avarice, and such al-
ready has been the language which she has insi-
nuated not only into the public mind, but I doubt
not also still more assiduously, into your own pri-
* Ihave “ken some pains to obtain accurate accounts of
the extent both of the seitied and unsettle] lands of Trinidada,
_and the present state of its popviation and produce; but have
found it very difficult to procure such information as might be
depended upon. Since official accounts of all those particulars
_ are very soon to ‘be laid before Parliament and, will no doubt
speedily be published, 1 forbear to offer the less satisfactory
results of priyate enquiries, .
vate
(
f
1
’
(
‘
i. —_——- “a. an. ee. ee ee.
= OEE ODDS (i
[ 158 J
vateear. But from the delusions of these wizard
scenes, let the considerations here set before
you be your safeguard; for if they have any
force, those gaudy prospects have no more reality,
than the verdane fields which tempt the feverish
patient in a calenture to plunge into the ocean.
That you have the means of immediately
opening a new slave Colony of great agricul-
tural capacity, is indeed true; nor can it be de-
ried that commercial enterprise would proba-
bly - make rapid advances in its settlement.
Open the flood-gates of the Guinea market
upon this new soil, and it will soon be satu-
rated with many miilions of British capital
spent in improvements; but before you plant,
it is prudent to enquire who is likely to .eap
the harvest. Before any proportionate returns
fo: this great capital can be expected, the pe-
rilous crisis which we have been contemplating,
will most probably arrive; and then if your old
Culonies are to be in jeopardy, let us enquire
what better security will you have in the new ?
Wherever negro bondage is planted, interior
danger and imbecility must inevitably take
root with it; and grow with its growth; but
this must inc “2 especially’ be-the case, where an
extensive Isiand is rapidly peopled with new ne-
groes from Africa; because, it is an admitted
fact, that such negroes are far: ore prone toin-—
surrection than the Creole slave, who is subdued
by
»
}
1}
a
#E
;
v4
ig
}
y
I
|
[ 154 ]
byeducation tohis degraded state, and is rendered
by habit less intolerant of the yoke ; because also,
numbers, and a wide range of territory, give con-
fidence to the‘spirit of revolt; and because, the
dreadful mortality, ever attendant on the clearing
of new lands between the tropics, must form one
great additional subject of discontent. When it is
considered that no Island’ comparable in magni-
tude to Trinadada, has yet been settled with the
rapidity which from the present extent of credit,
and prevalence of West India speculation, may
in this case be expected, these interior sources of
weakness and insecurity seem likely to be great
there beyond all former precedent. Nor should it
be forgotten that the shock to commercial cre-
dit from the loss of sich a Colony, would be
dangerous, in proportion to the recency and
magnitude of the speculations of which it had
been the field.
If we look to the exterior sources of danger,
we shall find that Trinidada will be exposed
beyond most of our other Islands to inva-
sion; while in the case supposed, it would pre-
sent the strongest attractions to an enemy. It
has the important disadvantage in a belligere:t
view, of being situated to leeward of Cayennes
and of all the Dutch Settlements on the Con-
tinent, within a short distance from the former,
and still nearer to all the latter; and is sepa-
rated on the South only by a narrow straight,
from
— a. 4 as ak
me = Ff FS ss A. Or % ee SR PCA
= «
r
( 155 J
from the Spanish main; while Tobago, an Island
now restored to the Republic, lies close to its
opposite shore.’ By Colonies therefore either of
France, or of Powers dependent upon France, this
Island: is in a manner surrounded, and from
thence at all times accessible. .
The . situation in respect of those powers
strongly resembles that of Great Britain itself
since the late conquests of France; but to im-
prove the likeness, we must suppose that power,
or her dependents, possessed not only of the
whole coast of the northern ocean, to the fur-
thest extremity of Norway, but also of Ireland ;
and the wind perpetually t- «sw from the
greater part of those shores pon our own.
The case of Trinidada would even be one of still
greater exposure; because the defensive resources
of Great Britain are chiefly internal, and her
fleet might be easily collected on the coast which
she would have to guard; whereas Trinidada
could scarcely rely on the timely aid of any
éther military or naval force, than that which
might be at all times appropriated to the object
of its single defence, and which might be taken
out of the general scale of West India war for the
purpose. Wehave restored Martinico; and long
before ships could turn up to the gulph of Paria,
with reinforcements from the Leeward Island
station, the issue of invasion must be decided.
It is however from the new political circum-
stances
{ 156 ]
stances of ‘the’ French Colonies that these geo-
graphical ones would derive their most formid-
able importance. Wz have seen that Cayenne is
one of the settlements in which revolution has
given to France a negro army, together with
other advantages quite incalculable when opposed
to our own wretched colonial system, . unless
counter-revolution shall have reversed the free
condition of the people. She must, it has been
further shewn, if unwise enough even to abandon
a reformation so useful and so wholly innoxious
as has been effected in this Colony, become very
formidable to a hostile neighbour by the great
military.establishment which will be necessary to
enforce and maintain submission; and which,
however ineffecual to secure permanently dor
mestic peace, will be a ready weapon of offence
against an enemy that lies at the threshold.
While either the energies of negro freedom,
or a force equal to its permanent subversion,
will continually threaten from this quarter; the
great extension of the limits of French Guyana,
by the late cession of Portugal, if not relin-
quished. by the Republic, will by enlarging the
population and the defensive establishments of
the province, increase the power of annoy-
ance. But should France still want a force
adequate to the conquest of Trinidada, she
would have auxiliaries enough at hand, From
the Dutch garrisons cf Surinam, Demerara,
Berbice,
, ) a? an, a ee ee) ee
{ 157 ]
Berbice, and Isequibo, draught§ would hardly
be refused at the instance of the Great Nation,
for an object which forty-eight hours might ac-
complish. Nor is it probable that the govern-
ment of the Caraccas, would inflexibly deny its
assistanice, in an enterprise from which Spain
might obtain revenge, if not restitution.
I entreat you, Sir, to weigh well these con-
siderations, and those offered in my former let-
ters, before you suffer twenty or thirty millions of
British capital to rush into the soil of Trini-
dada, and tempt the cupidity of France*. To
found a new slave Colony in that neighbour-
hood, seems to me scarcely less irrational, than
it would be to build a town near the crater of
Vesuvius. iy
If the wealth of this country be so redundant,
that a waste like this is desirable for its own
sake, like a hemorrhage to a plethoric patient ;
or the Slave Trade so hallowed a business, as to
be followed like loyalty or devotion, for its: own
sake, ‘whether we win or lose the game,” yet
Sir 1 conjure you to pause in this case for the
sake 0‘, our old sugar Colonies.
And here I call upon the planters of Jamaica,
and the other Islands, though to some of the
* This will hardly appear an excessive estimate, if it be
true that above 18 millions were laid out by British subjects
in Dutch Guyana, while we held it by the short and uncertain
senure of the sword, .
principles
io
Se fe IIs
[ 158 ]
principles professed in this address they may be
reasonably supposed inimical, to join in’ the
deprecating measure to them so ‘pernicious
and fatal, as the immediate settlement of this
large Island upon the system hitherto pursued.
I here resort not to arguments, ‘which how-
ever specious, and however sound, I know will
never induce them to coalesce with any -oppo-
sition to the Slave Trade. No possible advance
in the price of negroes, or depreciation of West
India produce, are to them evils half so unwele
come, as the slightest’ victory the friends of
Africa might gain upon abolition principles ; as
was sufficiently witnessed by their silent acqui-
escence in some late measures of government.
While they strenuously and successfully op-
posed a suppression of this commerce upon an
almost exhausted part of: the’ coast of Africa,
from which they admitted 'the supply to be an
object of: no moment, they saw without an
audible murmur, three-fourths of the whole ex-
isting Slave Trade of this country poured into
the conquered Colonies, to open new lands there
upon British account, and‘raise by their future
produce a powerful rivalship in the sugar and
cotton markets of Euiope.
Against prejudices like these Sir, I know it
would be vain to contend. I would as soon un-
dertake to convince the dealers in the Slave
Trade and their advocates, that the particulay
: intcrests
= Fi tet “PPA
uos =sS Ss ee
[ 159 ]
interests of Liverpool should yield when op-
posed to those of the empire at lage. Butt
conjure the planters to consider, that it is pos-
sible‘a crisis may have arrived, when the preser-
vation of their estates, or at least of the British
character of their estates, may depaid upon
such a change of system as unluckily falls in
with the odious views of abolitionists; and
coolly to enquire, whether the present be not
such a crisis,
They well know how to appreciate the diffi<
culties of defensive West India war, in circum-
stances like those in which we are likelysoon to be
placed. Making even “every allowance which
their most flattering hopes can suggest, for a
possible aggravation of the approaching dan-
gers in the views I have laid before you,. they
must at least feel that the defence of our West
India dominions will in future be a most ar-
duous duty ; and they must know that the ef-
forts of the nation, though great, cannot be
unlimited, Let them therefore ‘fairly weigh
the effects of such a diversion of force as
must arise from the importance and great vul-
nerability of Trinidada, if now to be settled
by the Slave T rade.
They need not to be told that a naval or mili-
tary force at. Jamaica would scarcely be any
greater security to that distant windward Island,
than the troops quartered at Colchester, or the
ships
{ 160 ]
ships in ordinary at Portsmouth. Nor, though it
may not beso obvious to European ideas, would
the force stationed in the Leeward Islands be
less incapable of bringing timely succour to pre-
vent. invasion or conquest. The course of the
trade wind among those Islands, much more than
their local proximity or distance, fixes the effects
of their relative positions for the purposes of war.
From ‘the interposition of that great naval
arsenal of France, Martinique, and of the now
very powerful Colony’ of Guadaloupe, between
our Leeward Island station and Trinidada, the
necessity of maintaming distinct defensive
establishments at both the latter might be more
clearly demonstrated. But it would be a waste
of time to insist further upon propositions so
clear, .as that a force independent of all our
other defensive establishments in the same quar-
ter of the world, must be maintained 'in the
gulph of Paria, proportionate to the importance
of this new Island, and the danger of its si-
tuation; and that this peculiar and necessary
service must greatly impair the means by which
the old Colonies might in the approaching
crisis hope to be defended.
Look back, Sir, on what has been formerly ob-
served respecting the waste of life.and of treasure
in West India wars. Then while you contemplate
the addition of this new branch of service, con-
sider also its probable magnitude, from the great
extent
[ 161
extent of the Island, the facility of invasion,
and the greatness of the hostile force by which
it will be surrounded. Reflect. next, on the
great sickliness, to which in common with all
lands in that climate while under the process of
clearing, this Island is undeniably subject, and
to which its brave defenders would consequently
in 2 high degree be exposed; and then say,
whe caer the suggestions of avarice are not con-
trary to the dictates of sound policy, on this
momentous occasion !
Should it after all be thought too much to
desist finally from the extension of our cart-whip
empire, and the enlargement of our once repu-
diated Slave Trade, in the settlement of this new
Colony, at least let the rash measure be post-
poned. Let us wait till the storm shall have
subsided before we send to sea a new and richly
freighted bottom.
If the produce of the sale of the Crown lands
be a temptation which the national. wisdom and
justice cannot wholly resist, let avarice at least.
not ruin her own object by a foolish impe-
tuosity. In any event of the French West
India enterprise that can at all weaken the
force of these remarks, the vacant lands will
cestainly sell to much greater profit than at the
“present period, while negro freedom is yet un-
subdued, and immense negro armies uncon-
quered and undisbanded, ‘The alarming pros-
M - pecta
[ 162 ]
pects I have set before you, will probably soon
be brought nearer to the eye if real, or dissi-
pated if delusive. Does the Chief Consul really
mean, as he promises, to maintain negro freedom
at Guadaloupe and St. Domingo? His first mea-
sures there will probably prove that intention;
and then who will assert it to be prudent in
Great Britain to found new Colonies of
slaves? If on the contrary, his views have been
rightly delineated in the former part of this ad-
dress, the resistance he may immediately expe-
rience will possibly demonstrate in a short time
the extreme difficulty of the enterprise; and
prove to every thinking mind, that either his
final defeat, or a compromise with negro liberty
highly dangerous to our Colonies, or the © ain-
tenance of enormous military establishments,
to us, in a national view not less dangerous,
must be the ultimate result: in either of these
cases, my practical conclusion must be abun-
dantly clear.
The only possible event which can make the
planting of the old system in this new soil, less
than political phrenzy, is that of an easy, total,
lasting, counter-revolution in those Colonies, by
which the old bondage shall be there essentially
and permanently restored, Of this result, the
proof cannot, I admit, be so speedy ; for the ut-
most apparent success on the arrival of the ar-
mament, will not, as before remarked, be a sure
advance
[ 163 |
advance towards the ultimate object. In this
case therefore, it is true that you will have to wait
till the drivers shall have resumed their former
occupation, till labour shall, for a short period at
least, have again been peaceably pursued under
the coercing whip ; and above all, till the Repub-
lic shall disband her negro armies, and reduce her
European force in the Colonies, within limits
approaching to the par of her former estab-
lishments, and consistent with the safety of her
neighbours.
Even this longest term of suspense however
might be patiently endured, if avarice would
but fairly calculate the improvements of the fu-
ture proceeds of the sales of unsettled lands,
when an experiment so decisive, shall have proved
the dreaded progress of negro emancipation to
be for ever defeated. Mean time every substan-
tial advance towards this consummation of the
planter’s wishes, will render the measure which I
deprecate less indefensible in point of policy,
and the sale of the Crown lands less wasteful.
Let it not be for a moment understood, that
to plead for mere delay, is the whole extent of
my purpose; or that I despair of a more en~
larged and generous policy being successfully
recominended to you, Sir, and to your col-
leagues in administration. I hope the argu-
ments which have been offered, and the stronger
ones which might upon moral principles be ad-
duced,
ea {
|
ie )
,
}
ati 4
j i
j by
[ 164 j
duced, will suffice to obtain for Africa in this
case more than a respite.
But it has gone abroad, I know not on what
authority, that an immediate sale of the Crown
lands in Trinidada was a measure actually in the
contemplation of his Majesty’s Ministers; and
it is obvious, that such sales if now made, would
be pledges from government to the purchasers, for
the admission of slavery and of the Slave Trade.
It is addéd, that when against this bold and bad
measure the security of an official declaration
was desired by a highly respectable Member of
the House of Commons, you declined publicly
to engage for even the suspension of such sales
till the wisdom of Parliament should deliberate
on the important subject.
Pardon me, Sir, if the effect in my mind of
such reports, has been an injurious distrust of
your intentions in this most momentous affair.
Nothing but the great prevalence of such ru-
mours, and the recent triumphs of Slave Trade
interests over the clearest dictates of sound na-
tional policy, cculd have made me apprehend
the possibility of a new Slave Colony being
ever founded by Great Britain in the West In-
dies after the Parliamentary votes of 1792; much
less with such blind precipitation as these ru-
‘mours import; but after what we have seen
‘lately permitted on the. continent of Dutch
-Guyana, a subject from which for the present I
purposely
a, eb at A464 45 = ts oh
[ 165 j
purposely abstain, nothing of this kind ought
to be deemed incredible; and therefore only am
I induced to implore delay, lest it should be too,
much to hope that right principles will perma-
nently triumph over short-sighted avarice on
this occasion.
Hitherto Sir, I earnestly request it may be ob-
served, that my arguments have been addressed,
not to the conscience of a British Statesman, but
to his prudence alone; and, but that it would
argue great moral insensibility in the writer, as.
well as do violence to right feelings, it would
perhaps be wise to rest my case here; without
attempting to strengthen it by what with some
minds is a most dangerous support, an appeal to
higher principles, than those of political expe-
diency.
There are men who hardly scruple to avow
the opinion, that in public deliberations the pro-
hibitions of the moral law ought often to be dis-
regarded when opposed to national advantage ;
and there are statesmen who have avowedly
acted upon that dangerous principle in regard to
the Slave Trade; holding that its abolition or con-
tinuance, was a question to be decided rather by
considerations of expediency, than by the dic-
tates of humanity and justice.
Of course it is in vain to reason with such men
in public-life, upon principles of mere moral obli-
gation, whether Christian or Pagan. They will
| neither
[ 166 ]
neither reprobate with St. Paul the doing evil
that good may ensue; nor hold with a Heathen
statesman “In eadem re utilitas et turpitudo esse
non potest” “ hoc ipsum utile putare quod turpe
sit, calamitosum est.”* The book of entries is
their Bible ; and a custom-house officer at the
bar, with an account of exports in his hand,
Plenids ac meliis Chrysippo et Crantore dicit.
But unfortunately, with some who thus soar
above vulgar prejudice, the understanding does
not long profit by its enfranchisement from or-
dinary testretats. Having attained, what the
world perhaps is too ready to allow them, the
praise of political wisdom, they too highly prize
the peculiar source of this estimation ; and
that their exemption from the weaknesses of the
heart in public conduct may not be overlooked,
you will be sure upon any question in which
goodnatured feelings have an interest on one
side, to find their voices on the other. Hence,
these sages gradually acquire an obliquity of
vision upon every public object in which moral
considerations are involved; and their minds
are as far warped from the straight line of sound
practical yadgement to the left hand, as the most
imprudent follower of abstract moral. rectitude
was ever bent to the right’ When a measure is
shewn to them to be wicked, it is more than half
* Cic, de offic, Lib. iii,
proved
vil
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the
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[ 167 ]
proved to be wise. Nay their artificial taste,
like other unnatural propensities, often ac-
quires greater strength, and more powerful domi-
nation over reason and prudence, than the natu-
ral one it has supplanted could ever have at-
tained If philanthropy has its enthusiasts,
political immorality has devotees, not so ardent
indeed, but more than equally blind and irra-
tional. There are fanatics in the school of Ma-
chiavel, as well as in that of Rousseau.
J might well illustrate these remarks by re-
viewing some past measures relative to the Slave
Trade: but besides the impropriety of such a
digression, it-would lead me into a subject, the
discussion of which has been for the present
expressly declined.
Crying mercy then of these profound poli-
ticians, and requesting them not to ruin the
effect of the preceding arguments upon their
own minds by reading the next following pages,
I proceed to offer a brief remark or two on the
moral character of the measure which I would
persuade you to avoid.
Be not apprehensive, Sir, that I mean to lead
you into any investigation of those trite and
disgusting top’ , the wickedness and the base-
ness of the slave trade.
I will not even ask you to admit, what no man
who has read the evidence on the subject can
conscientiously deny, that the African market
is
f 168 |}
is supplied by criminal means: alone*. But J
must beg leave to recall to your recollection
the votes on this subject of the Commons of
Great Britain in Parliament assembled, in the
year 1792.
In ‘a Committee of the whole House, on Mon-
day the 2d of April, in that year, upon an
amended question, ‘“ That it is the opinion of
‘* this Committee that the trade carried on by
“ British subjects for the purpose of obtaining
** slaves on the Coast of Africa ought to be gra-
“ dually abolished,” the Committee having di-.
vided, the numbers were,
For the Question - - - -
Againstit - - - - = -
—_———-
Majority - - - - - - - = 145
In the course of the same month several sub-
sequent debates took place, and as many ques-
tions were decided in the negative by small ma-
jorities, upon propositions for abolishing the
trade at different periods prior to 1796.
* 1. Sales of debtors, and their human pawns, or their families,
in consequence chiefly of credit given by the slave traders in
brandy, tobacco, &c. with a view to such means of payment.
2. Convictions for crimes; mostly imputed for the sake of selling
the accused and his family, such as witchcraft, &c. 3. kidnap-
ping; and 4. wars; which are always proportionate in frequency
and extent to the demand for captives—these, are the only sources
of vendible or exportable slavery in Africa. No historical fact
is better established, or less open to controversy than this,
At
[ 169 ]
At length on the 28th of April,. 1792, npon
un amended Question, “ That it shall not be
** dawful to import any African negroes into any
“ British Colonies or Plantations in ships own-
“ ed or navigated by British Subjects, at any
“* time after the first day of January 1796,” it
was carried in the affirmative.
Ayes- +--+ ++ + + Wl
Noes - - = - - = - - 182
Majority - - oe a
The original Question on that day moved by
Mr. Dundas, and which the minority for the
most part supported, went to fix the Ist day of
January 1800, as the period of abolition; so
that though the amended resolution was carried
by so smalla majority as 19, it is fair to infer
that the opinions were, as on the first occasion
near three to one against the permanency of this
commerce, and in favour of its abolition at a
period now long since elapsed.
Of these resolutions the avowed principles are
too well known to need explication here; and
if a clear, succinct, masterly, view of the Parlia-
mentary discussions that led to them is desired,
it may be found among the Works of Mr,
Gisborne*.
Those principles, Sir, were of no arbitrary or
“ See Principles of Moral Philosophy, last edition, to which
this tract is annexed,
mutable
cr 170 |
mutalle nature; nor such as any human legisla-
ture can annul; they belong to the unchangea;
ble law of God; and are of the “ weightier
matters” of his law, ‘“ justice, mercy, and
truth.” The Commons of this great commer-
cial nation in effect solemnly resolved, ‘“ That
the slave trade was upon moral principles inde-
fensible; and that it ought to be tolerated no
longer than the supposed necessities of the West
Fndia Colonies, possessed by Great Britain in
3792, indispensibly required.” Different opinions
prevailed as to the proper extent of the term
during which it should be suffered to continue ;
but except in the small minority of 85, out of
315 votes, not a voice was found to defend the
trade on any other ground but that of existing
necessity. Even those members of that small
minority who gave their reasons, for the
most part equally relied upon this defence,
though they would not concur in then fixing a
time for future abolition. The condemnation
of this traffic therefore as a voluntary branch of
commerce, was not mercly the act of a majority,
composed of rigid rectitudinarians.. Most of
the advocates for state convenience, and the
champions of Liverpool, concurred in it. It was
the declared sense of Mr. Dundas—if I mis-
take not Sir it was your own—Nay, were I to se-
lect from the debates on the slave trade, the
most
Po oP ETN es
{ 7 Jj
most striking passages of strong and unquali-
fied reprobation of that commerce upon moral
principles, I should perhaps cull them from the
speeches of Mr. Dundas, and of the supporters
of that middle ground which he, fatally for
Africa, maintained.
The principles thus asserted by the Commons
of Great Britain have never been retracted; on
the contrary a Bill grounded ~»on them was sent
up to the Lords so recently as 1799.
Mean time, the echo of the loud clamours of
the national conscience of this commercial
country, were heard in other nations; and pro-
duced the very reformation in their trade, which
the commons stood so solemnly pledged for in
our own. The states of America passed acts of
immediate abolition; and Denmark issued an or-
dinance to terminate her commerce on the slave
coast at an early period. As to France, and the
states dependent on her, the extinction of their
slave trade was less perhaps the result of princi-
ple than necessity ; but in fact, not a negro was
transported from Africa after the commence-
ment of the war under the flag of the Republic,
nor a slave imported into her remaining West
India possessions. When British Guineamen
were captured by her cruizers in the West Indies,
a case very frequent, the Africans were not al-
lowed to be sold for the benefit of the captors ;
but
[ 172 ]
but immediately enfranchised on arrival at her
Colonial Ports*.
An argument much relied on by ane of your
present colleagues, a zealous defender of this
commerce, was thus done away ; and in its stead
a new tie of an honorary nature bound the Com-
mons to consistency. Nor is it material to say
that the Republic or other European nations
have revived or propose to revive this trade,
while they have so much reason to conclude that
Great Britain will not concur in renouncing it ;
unless it can be shewn that we have treated
with them for a general compact to make the
sacrifice universal. If any diplomatic propo-
sition of that nature was made to France, for
the credit of this country, let the fact be made
public; but if not, the relapse of the French
or other nations into this iniquity, will be no
excuse for our own apostacy ; of which it will
be rather an effect, than a motive, and an
aggravation, rather than an excuse. Suppos-
ing however that other nations had not been
deceived by, or acted upon our resolutions,
* The most satisfactory eviience of this fact has been found
in the papers of neutral vessels ftom the French Colonies taken
‘as prizes and prosecuted in ou: Admiralty Courts, See she
cases of the Active and Adeline before the Lords Commis.
sioners of Appeals in Prize Causes in 1802. Further evidence
on the part of the Captors, page 45. The same fact has also
clearly appeared in other Appeals,
they
[ 173 ]
they are still binding in honor.as well as
conscience upon the British Commons, and
are still the uncancelled records of our self-
conviction if wantonly in principle trans-
gressed.
Under such circumstances what name ought
to be given to the project of those who would
found a new Slave Colony at Trinidada? In-
stead of binding up the bleeding veins of Africa
in 1796, they would in the second year of the
19th century, enlarge her wounds by new and
more fatal incisions. Instead of merely sus-
taining those houses built by blood and mi-
sery which we then owned, they would mark
out the foundations of a new and enormous
edifice, to be raised, and kept in repair for
ages to come, by the same horrible materials.
They would open a new West Indies, and pre-
pare new fleets of slave-ships to drain the yet
remaining blood of Africa, and stimulate her
wretched children to new crimes, that our new
shambles may be filled.
The utmost period to which even Mr. Dundas
would have protracted the miseries of that
hapless continent, has arrived; nay, the sun
has twice run his annual round, since Mr.
Pitt, with the full concurrence of that
too powerful friend, was to see the benign
light of civilization begin to shed on the
dark
[ 174 J
dark horizon of Africa at least an evening
ray—
* ¢ Tilic sera rubens accendit lumina vesper !’?
Alas ! how unreal have proved the prospects so
eloquently painted! In that gloomy region not a
star has yet risen, but it is profound and hope-
less darkness still.
intempesta silet nox
Semper, et obtent& densantur nocte tenebra. |
To recede ffoma generous purpose of refor-
mation, is however far less reproachful to a
great nation, than to enter upon new crimes
of which she has felt and admitted the turpi-
tude; and when the bounds of acknowledged
and repented transgression are willingly en-
larged beyond those limits which bad habit has
made it difficult to contract, it argues more
than a want of virtuous energy; it indicates a
character rotten to the core, and in which the
influence of moral sensibility is wholly sub-
verted.
And shall a great nation like this, Sir, ex-
pose itself to such foul reproach! Shall Great
Britain, after avowing the smart of an awaken-
ed conscience, and promising like a poor Mag-
* See Mr. Pitt’s incomparable spe:ch in the debate of
April gd, 1799,
dalen
vw o
[ 175 ]
dalen to reform when relieved from the ab-
horrid necessity of sinning, relapse into
deeper prostitution the moment a new set-
tlement is offered!! Forbid it that sentiment
to which may Englishmen ney. become in-
sensible ! forbid it the sense of national dignity
and virtue !
For apostacy so infamous as such conduct
would amount to, well might Englishmen blush;
for let it be remembered that it was not merely
by the votes of the Commons that the Slave
Trade was condemned: a vast majority of the
nation at large anticipated by their declared
opinions and their wishes, that solemn and
righteous judgment: and by whom has the self-
condemning sentence been reversed ? The Lords
indeed have not given their concurrence; but
even they have pronounced no different verdict
on the evidence, upon which the solemn cause
is still depending before them. If that House
of Parliament has not echoed, at least it has not
expressly negatived, the conclusions of the
Commons, and the petitions of the people.
Is there then to be found in history a pre-
cedent for national inconsistency so very base
as the opening a new Slave Colony by the
African trade would at this juncture amount
to? Nations indeed have sometimes acted in-
congruously enough with their professions and
avowed principles; but it has generally, or al-
ways,
[ 176 J
‘ways, been in the pursuit of objects, which
whether real or ostensible, were in their kind less
sordid than the bribe now held out in Trini-
dada by the Slave trade; from motives something
less grovelling than mere avarice ; and rarely, if
ever, at the expence of principles so very sacred
as those we are now called on to sacrifice or to
maintain. The crime would I coneeive be quite
unparallelled in enormity ; and there is hardly
a civilized nation on earth that might not af-
‘terwards look down upon this favoured land,
boastful of its public virtue, and apply to us
with some little variation the reproof of one of
our own poets for a vice of a different character :
s¢ O Britain infamous for avarice,
«¢ An island in thy morals more depraved,
«< Than the whole world of rationals beside ;
«* In ambient waves plunge thy polluted head,
¢¢ Wash the dire stain, nor fhock the Continent.”
Perhaps even with those Latitudinarians, who
disclaim in public life the obligations of mo-
rality, national character at least, may be held
of some importance; and they may feel that
the credit of the country, demands some lit-
tle attention to consistency on this occasion.
Let me suggest to them therefore, that if the
Slave Trade is to be thus extended, the votes
ot 1792 ought to be reversed; and erased
like the resolutions on the Middlesex election
from
[ 177°] 3
from the Journals of the House. I would also
recommend that the great body of evidence re»
specting the ‘nature and sources of. the Afri-
can trade which was laid at that zra’before Par-
liament, and so strongly impressed the. cons
science of the Commons, may be committed to
the flames; ynless upon a second inspection it
should ‘be’ found like some cabalistic. ingcrip;
tions mentioned in the Arabian Tales, to have
since changed its form and signification, But
for such of the great speakers in favour of abo-
lition, whether immediate or gradual, as may,
now countenance such an extension of the Slave
Trade or allow it to pass without their sincere
opposition, a more difficult labour will remain,
They must collect and destroyevery impression of
those powerful speeches, the eloquence of which
has given them a wide diffusion in the libraries
of the present day, and would embalm them
for posterity ; lest they should hereafter hold
a lamp to the hearts of their authors, when the
anxious politics of the present day shall be too
remote: in time and interest to surround with
false rays ‘the great public actors engaged in
them, while the eternal ‘principles of morals shall
remain, to measure by an unchanging scale,
the true magnitude or littleness of character,
But Iam wronging those great men of both
parties who have supported the cause of aboli-
N . tion,
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[ 178 J
tion, by supposing for a moment that they could
fall mto such reproachful apostacy. That they ~
would if necessary vindicate the ‘honour of il-
lustrious talents by a far different conduct, and
would: be supported not only by the voice of
Parliament, but of the’ nation ’ at ‘large, - is 3
trust unquestionable. would hope However
that there will be found as well within the Ca-
binet, as without, a perfectunanimity’ ofopinion
against a wanton and’ enormous enlargement of
the Trade for the purpose in question, whatever
differences may stilt subsist as to its immediate
abelition, ° .
Hf the reasons which have been, offered against
the colonization of Trinidada in the accus-
tomed West India mode, are; not ail incon-
clusive; .if moral, principles solemnly, and repeat-
edly. recognized by one branch of the, Legis-
Jature, and not disclaimed by the. other, ought
not’ to, be needlessly and, grossly. violated ; or
if all the serious prudential objections’ to that
iniquitous. project which have been here urged,
are not toa; weak. to. forbid at; least its immedi-
ate adoption ;,. my argument, imposes. on me
“po. necessity, to go further, and to point out
positive advantages that may be derived from
this
1 179 ]
this new Colony by an opposite mode of treat-
Ls aie
' There are eepeior great and. extensive he-
nefits, of aninnocenit and unobjectionaLie kind,
which the nation may reap from; this. cession ;
and I regret that the necessity of drawing ta 4
conclusion prevents my, now speaking of them
so fully and distinctly as they deserve.
Of the commercial, capacities of the Island
something was lately said in dag era and their —
. value was not exaggerated.
That: the deep and capacious Bay. of Paria,
effectually guarded as it is by. its well. enclosed;
situation, if not.ulso by its geographical place,
from. the peril of hurricanes,* will soon. be
the! favourite resort: of West. India commerce,
hardly admits of a doubt; and already experi-
cence has begun in some degree to prove, that it
will. become a most useful and important entre«
pot, between. the: manufacturers. of Great Bri-
tain, and the traders of Spanish America,
To Trinidada, the Spaniards already resort with
their dollars and tich nativé. commodities, in
order to purchase the cottons of Manches-
ter, and other manufactures of this country,
so much im demand i in, their own. For these,
they: have: been long accustomed to frequent
with their small vessels the ports of the British
| © Htricanes have ‘never yet’ been known + 60 far to the
pines
; Islands,
f 180 ]
Islands, ata great distance from their own
coasts, tuough admitted only by connivance,
contrary to our Acts. of Parliament, as well as __
to the laws of Spain. But. they. have. visited
not British’ ports ouly:. those of all other
European nations who possessed any Settlement,
in the Charribbean. seas, have. partaken of :the,
benefit ; ahd foreign ' manufactures. have conse-.
quently in’some degree supplanted our own. |)
In these commercial voyages, much was natu-.
rally added. by the length of the passage to. the
degree ofa danger, most: formidable in: its: kind ;
perpetual imprisonment, and hard labour,.as well
as confiscation of property, being the penalties,
incurred-under their.own laws, by these adventur.
rers' when seized in thé course of that illicit traf-
fic: and this.risque during: the passage naturally:
diminished .an intercourse, which it could :not:
wholly suppress, Our.own merchants tempted by,
the enormous ‘profits they. ‘obtained,. were some-
times bold.enough to: embark in this trade and,
to supply: the craving markets; of the Spanish
settlements in. British ‘vessels,’ at the peril of:
the same fearful:consequencesattendant on detec+:
tion and)capture. .The laxity of fiscal. police in,
the interior of these settlements, is so. great, or
the connivance. of revenue: officers there, from:
a sense -of public necessity, . soi universal, that
the danger incurred by the Spanish smugglers
seems to be confined to the transport of the com-.
: Modities
[ 181 ]
modities by sea; and therefore when that danger
shalt be materially abridged by the proximity of
the foreign port with which they trade, the com-
merce will probably soon and greatly i increase.
It is still more probable that almost all the scat-
tered’ streams of this lucrative trade which
have heretofore flowed from different’ points
of the Spanish continent in the vicinity ‘of Tri-
nidada, to the English, French, Dutch, and
Danish Charribbee Islands, will be collected to-
gether by a channel so inviting as that which
will now present itself in the Gulph of Paria, at
only three miles distance from the main.
I would not be understood as meaning to re-
commend a species ‘of commerce, interdicted ‘by
the laws of the two countries ‘between the sub-
jects of which’ it obtains, Whether wants the
most urgent, and a necessity which ‘is no less
than that of being clothed when naked, may
excuse the Spanisli colonists in breaking through
the jealous and tyrannical restrictions of 4 royal
ordinance, anc whether also the British merchant
is absolved from the duty of obeying ai Act of
~ Parliament when the officers‘of ‘the Customs are
officially instructed to dispense* with: it,* are
questions which I am not’bound fo discuss. I
niveau e
* It is by instructions from the’ ‘Board of Customs, that
the British’ Ports in the West Indies‘are open to this trade,
contrary to the Acts of Navigations iu...
a speak
[ 182 ]
speak of what commerce may be expected at
-Trinidada, not of what ought to be allowed.
. Let me however digress so far, as to suggest
that it. would be honourable to your administra-
tion to remove, if possible, these stumbling blocks —
gut of the -way of commercia! morals; and
that the cession of Trinidada may perhaps. fur-
nish 9 fair opportunity of effecting it. Spain,
conscious of her inability to prevent by any
laws an intercourse to: which there are on both
sides so great temptations, and to which’ our
possession of the Gulph of Paria will now give
new facilities ;, may perhaps. be disposed to pur-
chase by a regulated permission of the trade,
some conventional security against the evils of
contraband dealings, and against other incon-
veniencies which she may apprehend in a political
view, from cur near approach to her continental
possessions, As to the British laws whici pro-
hibit this commerce, their repeal has as I appre-
hend. been prevented only by the fear of giving
offence to the Court of Madrid. It, would cer-
tainly be indecent openly to legalize a trade
with the subjects of any power contrary to its
own prohibitions, /
Though the illicit and clandestine nature of
this commerce would certainly contribute to
the peculiar attractions of Trinidada, this port
would have claims. enough to secure to it also a
decided preference, in the event of a more ge-
: neral
[ 188 ]
neral intercourse with the continent being le-.
galized by the government of Spain.
But our new colony has other commercial. ad-
vantages of a novel and peculiar kind. If by-’
vicinity to Laguayra, and the other ports of the
province of Caraccas, it invites the commerce of
the Spanish’ Colonies on the Main, it effers the
same motive of preference to the colonists of
Demerara, Berbice, Issequibo, and Surinam,
which are all ata short distance to the oanvers, |
on the same rich continent.
Of these settlements, restored by the latetreaty.
to the Dutch Republic, the two former, if the
national character of the chief inhabitants and
proprietors were to constitute that of the soil,:
might be called British Colonies.. By adventurers
from the English Islands: many of their finest.
plantations were owned before the:war; and —
such extexsive tracts of their uncleared lands,
have been purchased and settled by our fellow-
subjects since the capture of those colonies, that
the Dutch planters are probably inferior both
in number and fortune to the British.
What restrictions the policy of the European
masters may impose on their reviving trade, it is
not easy to foresee :. but the want of capital and
credit will in all. probability lead to an indul-
gent system; and of whatever commercial inter-_
course they may allow to foreigners, their enter-
prising British neighbours will be the first to
reap
[ 84: j
reap the benefit. Habit will conspiie with mote
rational grounds of preference, to recommend:
the manufactures of this country.; and. unless
very ‘strange: reverses take. place, the British
market, when the , certainty and convenience
of its returns are taken into account, -will pro-
bably: be long the most eligible’ destination:
for the consignment’ of ‘West India products. :
This double ‘inducement, . under a government.
professing to be popular, ‘will.either bend the
law to the. general convenience, or ‘make: the
general: convenience too strong for the law;
and in either event, Trinidada may be expected
to become a warehouse for the. supply. of these
flourishing settlements: with the: merchandize of
Europe; and for. the anne of their picdnce
in return:
Hither also, the sexpoiie from the United
States of America ultimately. dest'ned: for :the
supply of the colonies on the; Main, will natu-
rally find their way; especially during the hur-_
ricane ‘season, or when from: the. crops being.
over, or from a temporary glut of such commo-:
dities, immediate recurns are not to be.expected
from the place of final destination. Here, as.in;a:
secure and convenient magazine, those essential;
supplies will be deposited; as of late yearsthey: :
were for the use of our own Islands at St. Eusta-
tius; and the merchant of Trinidada will either:
receive a middle profit, ora factor's commis-:
sion,
nf mm ah wi * + st Ste eet TR wad
Eb Wey
sion, from the exporter of North America onthe
one hand; and the planterof Guyanaon the other.
From these, considerations, ., which might
i much further extended, this settlement will
probably become an emporium | of. Western
commerce, superior to any that has’ yet been
seen between the tropics. Ao a
So: far, Sir, are these. great. -eottimervial
views from recommending, that’ they’ evi-
dently and: strongly terd to’ interdict, the.
further introduction: of. slavery, and the Slave
Trade, into Trinidada.
‘The footing which the baneful West India
system has already gained there is insignifi-
cantly small, when compared to the extent of
the Island; and if its further progress shall_be
prevented, you may gradually fix in that new
soil a firm and tranquil dominion, so as to per-
petuate these great commercial advantages ;
instead of possessing them by that precarious,
uneasy, and ‘costly tenure, by which the so-
vereignty of a slave colony in the West Indies
must always in future be held. Let therefore
the great and innocent value of this important. -
céssion, béa new argument against applying it to
the guilty uses that short sighted avarice would
suggest.
Ate then, it may be asked, the fertile lands
of this extensive Island to remain in the same
unproductive: state in which Spanish indolence
has
St ace caaee am naa
— ogee
eae
Paes 3
ene ir ee
RCI SETS ARIAT TED TENE Ss ge SEED ne Se
ee ee nn
i
ae
eet
a tt
wen kit Y
Mh
tel
at
oa
oa
oe
Be
Be +i)
bg
of!
(i
» is
a
i
Bue
lie
Mien at |
| By
hie |
oa
Pe:
as
{ i
e ,
ae) |i
hPa
Mite}
Ape tii
aS
ie
‘YP. u
ty
pe ag ae ee
{ 186 ]
has left them? Better so, than that they should
be watered by human blood, and the’-tears. of
human wretchedness, But happily, this is not
the only alternative.
No Sir, a beneficent Picaidanne: as: put alte
your hands, an inestimable treasury, of more than
commercial, or than agricultural wealth;'com- .
prising these indeed, to a large extent, but con-
taining a pearl,of far higher price,’ to .atrest, the
improvident alienation of which, is no unim-
portant object of this’ Address,
You have in this great acquisition, the means
of most favourably trying an experiment. of
unspeakable importance to mankind; an expe-
riment never tried before; and of which the suc-
cessmight in future produce such extensive good,
as to indemnify humanity for all the evils of. the
late dreadful, war: Africa might hereafter be deli-
vered. by, it from the devastation of the Slave
Trade; anda new system founded in the West
Indies, gradually, but surely corrective, of all the
evils of the old.
To hotd at least a highly probable. chance,
of such. great effects, and of attaining with
them,.a yet unknown degree of colonial strength
and prosperity, you have scarcely a. sacrifice to
make; nor to call upon the country for-a single
active effort. ‘Almost all that will be necessary, |
is, to abstain, from what I hope has upon other
views, been proved _ to be a most impolitic, and
ill-timed
| 187 J
ill-timed alienation of the public domains in
Trinidada; and to prohibit the importation of |
slaves, or at least of negroes to,remain in bond-
age, for the further settlement of that Island.
If, to purchase a. chance of such gigantic
good, a large price were to: be paid by the pub-
‘lic, I will not. wrong the feelings of Englishmen
80 much, as to doubt that-they would chearfully
ratify the contract. But, if there, be. justice
in the preceding arguments, the plan I propose
to you, is one pregnant with the only means of
future economy, and abiding wealth, in the
West Indies; and therefore it would be erro-
neous .to consider as any pecuniary sacrifice,
the means I. have next to suggest: more espe-
cially, as they will only keep pace wi the suc-
cess of the experiment.
In addition then, to:a provident reservation
of the crown lands, and the prohibition of im-
porting slaves for their future culture, Let «@
portion of that rich and unopened soil, be sold at
a low price, or granted freely, to all who will un-
dertake, as the condition of the tenure; and on
peril of reverter to the. crown, to settle and cul-
tivate it by the labor of FREE NEGROES.
As further encouragement, it will be neces-
sary that whoever shall add by importation to
the common stock of free cultivators, shal! have
secured to him a pre-emption of their labor for a
reasonable time, upon terms to be regulated by
law ;
f 188 J
law; or in other ‘words, that they shall for a
term of years be placed in the known’ relation of
indented servants, ‘to the planter for the'eulture —
of whose‘estate, and at whose expenee, they’ shall
be brought to the Island and enfranchised.
“Fhat the naturé éfthis new condition may be
: tinequivocally distinguished from the state, ina:
deqtrately defined’ by the’ term “slavery,” and
may not degenerate into that’ pernicious bond-
age, ‘its limits ‘tiust be’ ‘clearly and anxiously
fixed by positive law, and guarded by the ‘most
vigorous sanctions. ‘The fundamental properties
of negro slavéry, to’ which in my first Letter I
called your attention, must ‘be; wholly ‘reversed.
The qualified and temporary property of the mas-
ter inthe labor of his imported servants, must not
be transferable at his discretion’: ‘still less’ must
it be liable to be sevéred, unless under very spe-
cial circumstances, from the tenure of the land:
The wages to be given, whether in money or food,
must be detcrmined by law; and so must the ge-
neral maximum of work to be'exacted. Above
all, the brutalizing method of enforcing labor by
the immediate application or terror of the —
driver’s lash, must be totally prohibited. That
shameful peculiarity of pegro bondage, that
bane of moral character in the slave, is utterly
inconsistent with’ the happy formation of a
new system, as pei as with the effectual 'r re-
formation of the old.
Some
[ 189 ]
Some power of correction for obstinate idle-
ness or bad conduct, it may be necessary ‘to in-
trust to the master; but its exercise must‘ be
jealously superintended by the law, and its abuse
severcly punished ; forfeiture of the right of
service ought:to be one consequence of any se-
rious ill treatment of a servant. m9
To enforce.sach laws,’ magistrates’ of great
respectability, independent of the.community in
which they live, and precluded fromholding land- .
ed property in the Island, ought to be appointed,
and armed with extraordinary powers ;.° and
their personal security in‘ the exercise of: their
offices: ought: to’ be anxiously provided for.
They:should.be made amenable for official mis-
- conduct to:British Tribunals:only ; and should
' be obliged to:record the:evidence on which they
proceed, in order to secure and facilitate the due
investigation of their judgments, upon appeals to
a higher tribunal in this: country ; which appeals
ought in all important cases to be allowed, and
under such regulations ‘as ‘will prevent'expence
and delay to the parties as:much as possible, and
at the same time check a litigious spirit.
- But the grand and essential spring, and: guard
of all, is Parliamentary, Legislation.
1 would earnestly a@vise:you,:Sir, in the form-
ing a: Constitution for this new. Colony, to
avoid the fatal error of giving: to it, -in ‘its in-
fancy, a slain Asseinlily. Atleast iuntil its
population
2 See ES eS ee ee eee
sae ree ae Sati eae aan Saari bagi Se Be ¥
al a i nr gS on ait - enters eed
[ 190 ]
population and wealth become: such as to pro-
mise a. respectable representation,. let the power:
of making laws for its internal government, rest
exclusively with Parliament.
‘Something has ina former part of chia estes
been said of the inconveniences that have arisen
from the institution of petty Legislative Assem-
blies, which represent and sit in theeentre of the
small communities over which they preside ; and
of their inaptitude'to correct such local evilsieven,
as seem. to fall within their most peculiar :pro-
vince. The remarks there made, may, be ex-
tended beyond the consideration of the slave .
laws; and, I know not, the mischiefs springing
from those laws excepted, a source of greater
political evils in ouramall West India Islands,
than their having beem separately complimented
_ with a pigmy model:of the British Constitution.
That noble machine,. believe me, does not work
well.upon so smalla:scale. It is. however suffi-
ciently evident, that im the first rude stage of
celonization, the settlers must) be peculiarly
unfit to form such an Assembly, . as may be
safely intrusted withthe momentous business of
forming or improving a nvunicipal code ; especi-
ally a code,. to be built upon principles so opposite
to the former. habits and. nutionsof West Indians,
as those which | trust will be the basis of ao
laws of 'Trinidada,
To: these practical hints, brief i eval as
a
[ 191 J
they are, I am aware that many objections will
occur. Of those that seem the most import-
‘ant I have well considered the force ; and
regret. that it is impossible, without delaying
this publication too, long, and. extending its
bulk beyond all reasonable, bounds, to-state them
distinctly, with the satisfactory answers, by
which I think they might be repelled.
The | difficulty that. in, my estimate has the
greatest, weight, is one which the West India
party would probably not choose to bring for-
ward... It arises from a fact of which from fa-
miliar acquaintance: with some of our old Co-
lenies, Ihave a clear conviction, that such
cheapness of labour is by no means to.be ex-
pected from. the voluntary industry, however
great, of negroes'in.a state of freedom, as now
excites the enterprise, and splendidly rewards
the success of the planter, in places where sla-
wery is\established. I admit therefore that Tri-
nidada would not on the plan proposed hold out »
to adventurers so good a field for the: acquisition
of a rapid fortune, as our slave colonies, while we
are able.to..preserve them, may in general afford.
And. as a.consequence of this concession, I must
further explicitly declare my.opinion to be, that if
blind avarice isto be. gratified by the most lucra-
tive sale of the vacant lands that.can be effected,
the purchaser must: be indulged with the cheap
accustomed mode of cultivation. But if the
: more
fF 19@.J
more liberal policy here recommended, should be:
adopted ini the disposal of those fertile iands,'spe~:
culation F doubt not will be sufficiently active to:
make the settlement soon very populous’ and:
flourishing ; notwithstanding the enhanced price
of labour, and. all other: eMonenne aa ‘ean ‘be:
stated. ; cy oe Spat iy
The planter’s gains;: sinboaggs not-'8o head
as where slav_ ‘labor’ on a ‘successful estate‘ is
attainable, would be more‘uniform; and’ infinitely
more /secure while: ‘the’. alundance’of. land!
with: which ‘he ‘miglit ‘be furnished ‘for! raising’
provisions, ‘the richness of ‘the'soil; ‘the peculiat’
practicability of employing the plough in the:
large savannas of level ‘land’ with whieh the:
Island’abounds, and other means by* which hu‘ |
man labour ‘when ‘no longer cheapéned | by’ the:
effects -of » slavery, would: be: carefully saved, '
would all tend to. lease’ ‘the force of this' chief
objection; and: to invite noraceswncil ‘under the’ .
new systen? at Trinidada. *' Saat alld
“This consideration would if the pier could:
be sufficiently encouraged; become. a! great
recommendetion af ‘the’ plan ‘proposed,’ ‘ra-:
ther than an objection ‘to “it. Hf’ the negro:
were better’ paid, or better maintained» in ‘res
turn for his labor, to whom would’ the’ ‘profit
ultimately ‘result, but to the manufacturers;
merchants, and ship-owners of Great Britain}:
and: elas them-to the revenu> ‘and ‘maritime’
Gs, resources
| [ 193 ]
resources of the Empire? This, Sir, is.a wid6 ©
and interesting topic. from which I am sorry to
abstain, I: must however avoid digression ; and
therefore will only so far explain the hint as to
observe, that three thousand free negro laboyrers
would probably purchase more. European. com-
modities and mayufactyres imported in British
shipping, than are nowconsumed by | ten thousand
slaves. Your West India ships now,on an ayerage
carry out to the Islands in actual freight not
more than one third of their tonnage; but-the
ships trading to Trinidada, would probably be as
fully laden on their outward, ag on. their home-
ward, voyage.
Of other apparent objections ta this So sepsats
jng. plan I must for the present wholly avoid the
discyssiqn ; as well as of a most important and
delicate question, “ Whether slavery being Jirst
effectually prohibited in Trinidada, importation
from Africa might just ifiably be permitted, to .
those who should chuse to enfranchise the negroes
they might import, with q view to the more speedy
and effectual settlement. of the Island?” Itis
not.merely from the necessity of hastening to a
conclusion, but from the difficulty of this ques-
tion in;a moral view, that I decline the discussion
of it under the present unsettled circumstances
of the case..
When it shall be expressly and firmly decided
not to tolerate anew Colony of Slaves, it will be
timeenough ta consider, whether the African trade
)
[ 194 ]
; may conscienciously be made to minister to a
Tew and ‘beneficent system; which is to operate
its own ‘extinction; ‘and ‘provide like the viper
‘out of its‘own substance the means of healing
‘more speedily the wounds it’ has inflicted: Let
the not however be misundérstood: Of the diity
of” totally and immediately abolishing the Slave
Trade I am ‘far indeed ‘from entertaining 2
‘doubt ; ‘and ‘have adverted’ to the question of
atfowing’ it to feéd a free and happy population
‘at Trinidad, ‘only under the apprehension’ that
‘Patliatient may still allow it to widen the circle
of the’ “deplorable bondage — in our
other Islands,
‘In that case only, ‘I find it difficult to say ‘that
to import a hundred hegroes upon the terms of
manumission, immediately from Africa; would
be more culpable than to bring them circuitously
through Barbadoes orGrenada. ‘To remove Creole
slaves upon such terms from the old Islands; and
supply t their place with Africans, would Glearly be
an ill judged preference. It would be to enfran-
chise those who from the ‘cotrupting habits of
bondage are the least fit for freedom; atid to
subject those to the yoke, upon whom its pres-
sure would from novelty be the most intoler-
‘able.’ Nor would freedom to the Creole tiegro,
though an inestimable boon, be unalloyed with
pain, when to receive it he must be banished per-
haps from all his beloved connections; a mi-
sery
5 8S oe
} 195 ]
sery which the. poor African must: equally ‘sus
tain. to whatever part of the West Indies: he
maybe carried; in this respect. therefore, the
supposed substitution would be a wee eas dus
plication of wretchedness.
Though it is not without pain that 1 offer ade
vice upon a.condition, the very idea of whith is
so:dishondurable to my country, as the prolon-
gatiow of: the Slave Trade, I feel it a duty'to add
that supposing that case to exist, ahother impor-
tant consideration may afise in favour of hegre
liberty im our hew Colony. ,
Were freedom established im that island, and
African ‘negroes allowed to be imported for the
more speedy encrease of its population, con-
siderable mimbers of them ouglit in’ my judg-
ment to: bepurchased by government, énrolled
into regiments, disciplined, and maintained as
@ permanent'garrison, at Trinidada. This expe-
- dient, which has already been applied on a small
scale to the defence of our Islands, has hitherto
been .found highly advantageous, and pro-
. ductive of ‘no bad effects; and though the aug-
mentation of this new species of soldiery may, as
before admitted, be liable to’ some prudential ob-
jections® in places ‘where slavery obtains, it
could in a free Colony give no just occasion for
Jealousy or upprehension,
Suchtroops, peculiarly fitted as they would be by
thesame bodily qualitiés that reconiniended them
ta
tame
to the slave merchant, and by their'yet un-
broken spirit, for military duties, knowing no
European tongue but our own, ‘strongly at-
tached to the government which redeemed them
from captivity, and connected with the ‘com-
munity around them by no-sympathies but such
as would:serve to fortify that disposition, would
be excellent defenders against the hostile at-
tempts. of France; and not Trinidada alone, but
our other’ Islands,: might: find in them. if ‘nu-
merous enough, the best attainable means of
security against the new perils ne are 80° evie
dently approaching.
‘This Island, which lies to. the siteefiried of
almost. all: our other West India possessions,
would be a most convenient station from whence
to send reinforcements to them on: any: emer-
gency’; and from the same. cause; let: me: inci-
dentally observe, the new system supposed to be.
established at Trinidada, would be the more in-
offensive to its Sister Colonies; ‘because that
windward position would render it very diffi-
“cult forthe slaves of our.other Islands to make
their escape into that land of freedom, sup-
posing even its own interior police not suffi-
ciently well regulated to prevent such abuses.
Beyond the very valuable regular force, that
might thus without occasion of disquietyde be
maintained, it would be adviseable to form the
inale negroés of a proper age into a militia, as
ig
S$ 3 ee St Ss 8lCU RO lt lhl tlt”
[ 197 ]
is now the practice in regard to all the free in-
habitants of our Colonies. By such means this
valuable Islan«' would, when its settlement should
be a little advanced, become ~erfectly invulner-
able; and its defence would. nearly cease to be
a burthen on the finances, while it would in no
degree’ drain the population of the mother
country.
-wOf the fidelity of the vowed negroes there
could i in this case be no reasonable doubt; for
the cause of Great Britain would be their own.
Instead therefore of lying at the mercy of the
French ‘Republic in any fuiuie war, ‘this pow-
erful Colony might perhaps enable us to overawe
all the valuable settlements of France, Spain,
and Holland, on the neighbouring Continent ;
while the example of its strength and prosperity,
might gradually attract imitation in the old
Islands, deliver us from: the guilt of the Slave
Trade, and perpetuate to us in the West Indies,
an innocent, safe, and flourishing dominion,
» Great then Sir, beyond any former prece-
dent, is the colonial crisis to which 1 have en-
deavoured to attract your attention.
While.a war of unparallelled importance has
been. agitating the bosom of Europe, and over-
turning her ancient establishments ; a new or-
der
{ 198 ]
dcr of things has arisen in'the West, ,pregnant
probably with new wats, and with new civil re
volutions in that quarter ofthe globe...
That sward which has spread desolation over
the old. world, is now drawn against the inha-
bitants of the new... The same Republic which
under pretence of giving liberty, h-« subjugated
and enslaved some of the happiest Ur Eyropean
nations, is now under pretenees equally false,
attempting te reimpose on her enfranchised | ne-
groes the: yoke of domestic bondage; the only
yoke which: after al} her vaunts she has:even by
accident broken, and compared to the weight of
which, her own military despotism may without
irony or grimace, be called by the name of frees
dom.. tae
Nor is it only to the negroes of 8t. Domingo,
who sevolted from .the cart-whip, and owe her
enly a.canstrained recognition of their enfran-
chisemient, that France would re-apply the
coercion..of the drivers. From the black co-
lonists of her windward settlements, this con-
sistent and grateful Republie would recall the
gift of freedom which by her: own laws she
invited them ito accept, and which they have
faithfully end bravely repaid. Regardless of the
important services they rendered her at the most '
ardueua crisis of her affairs, and of eight years
undeviating fidelity,, she has foreed: by ..La-
crosse’s attempts the negroes of Guadaloupe —
into
[ 199 j
into insurrection; and if the assertions of her
government deserve credit, has restored. the
Slave Trade at Cayenne... .
Such is Gallic attachment to the principle of
freedom and justice!!! ..
But to these sciaaamalecers views, firm
resistance has already been opposed... Guadas
loupe is already in the undisputed possession of
the negroes ; and Buonaparte, in his, more. than
Syrian enterprise against..St. Domingo, seems
likely to be, encountered, by: difficulties not less
insuperable than the walls of Acre, _.
_ Of the probable. consequences of this fommotts
ant though distant war, I have attempted, a fair
investigation; and whatever may be their:na-
ture in regard to. France, they have appeared. to
be in every possible result, big with early. perils
to the Colonial interests, of Great Britain. .
Even in that event which might. be. least i incom
patible with the safety of private property in
our Colonies,..their political relation to this
country will be imminently endangered. The
attainment of the apparent objects of the Repub-
lic has been shewn to be what we are.bound no
less in a. national view to deprecate, than the
fseedom and-independency of the negroes.
Such being our prospects, I have proceeded
to enquire. what measures those. who preside
over the affairs of this great Empire ought to
pursue in this sialaiiibiore crisis, and what to avoid ;
and
[ 206 ]
dnd thotigh the practical conclusions whiclt
have been suggested’ are chiefly of a nega
_ tive kind, it has.been attempted to point out
sore measures of active ‘preparatior, by which
the approaching perils may be lessened, and our.
freat maritime and commercial interests in the
West Indies, enabled vse — to ride out
the storm.
On the’ Aijectioks which may be pre td
be raised to these remedial expedients I have
not been silent: The most “obvious have ‘been
noticed and repelled. But if through the delicacy
of the case, the novelty and difficulty of the
~ measures proposed, or the formidable opposition
made: by parties whose particular interests are
involved, you should be induced rather to await
the natural issue of the disease than resort to
such troublesome means of relief, at least the
impolicy of urging forward the dangerous crisis,
has I trust been sufficiently proved, _
Were the justice and dignity of the nation
not irreconcileably opposed’ to the monstrous
project which some minds have ‘not been
ashamed to conceive ;—were the feelings of
Englishthen prepared for an alliance’ with the
French Republic, in a wat like that in which she
has embarked at St. Domingo ;—were we willing
to imbue our hands ‘in the blood of men who if
they had ‘no conventional claims on our news
trality, have yet given us no offence, and possess
the
~~ ~~. ht Ss es 02s Ole le
{ 201 ]
the negative merit of having abstained during
critical times from hostilities against us ;—were
we mean enough to become scavengers to the
Great Nation, by helpitig ter to scour her Co-
lonies from what she now chooses to consider as
the filth of her own revolutions ;* I say Sir,
were British minds ripe for all this deep: humi-
liation,. it ‘has I trust been demonstrated that
they ought in plain policy to be saved:-from it ;
and that the fatuity of assisting France iti this
new war would be such as could only be sur-
passed by its baseness,
It has been ,attempted further to shew that
if neither through the means I have sug-
gested, nor any others that:can be devised, our
slave-peopled: Colonies can be so strengthened
as to be secured from the new dangers of their
* The most modest State Paper perhaps that has issued
from the Government press of France, even in these days of
persifiage and hypocrisy, is General Le C/erc’s late Proclamation
to the Negroes of St Domingo, wherein he pravely declaims
against thofe ‘ abstract principles’? that he supposes to have
banished the cart-whip; and invites the Negroes to partake
the freedom which France as he says ‘* has extended to all
the Countries in Europe that she bas conquered —therefore
cannot be supposed capable of withholding from them.”—
The pattern to be sure is in European eyes not very inviting
and yet like the gloomy finery of the undertakers’ journcymen,
this French freedom would. be far too costly for the poor ne:
groes long to wear, should they listen to the worthy General.
—They would soon be called upon to strip, and r ut on their
former rags.
situation,
[ 202 ]
situation, at least we ought not at the present
alarming conjuncture needlessly to encrease their
extent, and to enlarge the too great proportion
of our commercial capital already dependent ox
their fate. If the foundation: be:incurably bad,
let us ‘not add another story tc the building’; nor
deposit in it more of our most costly effects.
The fall of our Slave Colonies. is: probable
enough, and would be fatal enough, without add-
ing Trinidada, settled by large and recent mer-
cantile speculations, to their number.
Let us rather try to found in that extensive
Island a new and happy system of colonizatiun,
which while it produces wéalth, may with an
equal progress furnish free, strong and faithful
hands to defend it. Let the critical state of our
Western Empire teach us the right use of this; its —
important-augmentation ; and lead us so tosettle
our new Island, that Trinidada may become. at
once an example, and a protection ; a farm of
experiment, and a fortress ; to the rest of our
Sugar Colonies.
In offering you a chart ‘ennaetiy to steer
through the dangerous straits we have entered,
the course of greatest safety has been found hap )
pily to coincide with that of moral rectitude and
honor ; and to be, .as far as relates to Trinidada,
the only course which we can pursue without
shipwreck of consistency, 3 as well as of conscien-
tious principle. un
From
[ 203. ]
From these higher considerations I could not
wholly abstain; but independently of these, the
basis of public expediency sufficiently sup- |
ports the practical-opinions that have been of-
fered. By the coolest prudential views I am
content that those opinions should be tried ; but
let prejudice on the’ other hand concede, that
sound policy is not always at variance with the
principles of moral’ obligation; that measures
may be very unwise although they are flagi-
tiously wicked ; and that there are cases in
which a Statesman: may by adhering to the
dictates of humanity and justice most effectually
ae the true interests of his couliry.
| Lam, Sir, &c: &o.
APPENDIX.
en
{
{
|
APPENDIX.
Nel
_LIgerty anp Bovasnares
Extract of the Decree of the National Conven-
tion of the 25th Pluviose, the 2d year of the
Hrengh Republic, One and Lndivisible.
“Tue National Convention declares that
* Negra Slavery in all the Colonies is abolished;
“ and consequently that all men without dis-
“ tinctior. of colour domiciled in the Colonies
“ are French Citizens, and intitled to all the
“‘ rights confirmed by the Constitution. It
“ looks to the Committee of Public Safety con-
“ stantly to report on the measures to be taken
* to secure the execution of the present decrees
“‘ Examined by the Inspectors, &c.
“ Signed, &c. &c.
To the above extract was subjoined the fol-
lowing Proclamation, by the Commissaries who
attended the expedition to Point-a-Pitre.
“ CriTizENs !
f 205 j
“ Crrizens !
“« A Republican Government is
not supported by chains, nor ‘slavery! The
National Convention,’ therefore, has proceeded
solemnly to decree liberty'to the negroes ; and
to intrust the mode'of putting the law in force
to the Commissaries whom they have delegated —
in the Colonies. It is necessary then to attend
to the natural emancipation; and civil organiza-
tion of this body. First, To a proper equality ;
without which the political machine is like a
- ¢lock whose pendulum’ has lost its equilibrium
and perpetual action, Secondly, an administra-
tion general and particular, which shall guarantee
property already accumulated, and the produce
of labour and industry. »
Citizens of all colours! ‘your happiness de-
pends upon this law, and its execution. The
delegates of the nation guarantee to you a sys-
tem which.will be the safeguard of all the friends
of the French Republic, against those who have
already oppressed, and wish again to oppress
them. But it is necessary that the white Citi-
. gens shall give cordially and ‘raternally a com-
petent salary for the work of their black, and
other brethren of colour; and it is also neces-
sary, that the latter should learn and never for-
get, that those who have no property are obliged
to labour for their own subsistence, and that
of
[ 206 ]
of their families ; and contribute with the rest
by this mean, to the support of their Country.
“< Citizens, ycuare nat to become:equal but to
enjoy happiness, ‘and let. all. partake of it. He
that is an oppressor of his fellow Citizens is a
‘monster, that ought to be immediately banished
from human society! ‘The Delegates of the
Nation order all administrative bodies, munici+
palities, armed forces, ‘and all individuals to put
into execution the law proclaimed at the head
of these presents without delay ; and they de-
pend upon the loyalty of all individuals for the —
safety of the French Republic, ahd put under
the protection of the law all Citizens, their
property and the produce of their thy Be and
labour whatever it may be,
‘* They order the seal to be affixed tothe pub-
lication. of the present law.and proclamation ;‘ at
Point-d-Pitre in the Island of Guadaloupe the
39th Prairial, 2d year of the renelt Republic,
One and. Indivisible.
(Signed. ) Prerne CHRETIENNE,
: Vicror Hucves.”
APPENDIX,
APPENDIX.
Eee
Ne IL.
Toussaint L’Owverture, General in Chief of the
— Army of St. Domingo, to all the Civil and
Milicary Officers of the Island.
CITIZENS,
AFTER putting an end to the War
in the South, our first duty has been to return
thanks to the Almighty, which we have done
with a zeal becoming so great'a blessing. Now,
Citizens, it is necessary to consecrate all our
moments to the prosperity of St. Domingo, to
the public tranquillity, and consequently to the
welfare of our Fellow-citizens,
But to attain this end in an effectual: manner,
all the Civil and Military Officers must make it
their business, every one in their respective de-
partments,: to perform’ the duties of their offices
with devotion and attachment to the public
welfare. ‘
You
[| 208 ]
You will easily conceive, Citizens, that agri-
culture is the support of Government ; since it
is the foundation of commerce and wealth, the
source of arts and industry, it keeps every body
employed, as being the mechanism of all trades:
and from the moment that every individual
becomes useful, it creates public tranquillity ;
disturbances disappear, together with idleness,
by which they aré commonly generated, and
every one peaceably enjoys the fruits of his
industry,
Officers, civil and military, this is what you
must aim at; suchis the plan to be adopted, which
I prescribe to you; and I declare, in the’ most
peremptory manner, that it shall be enforced,
My country demands this salutary step; I am
bound to itby my office, and the security of
our liberties démands it imperiously, 3
But in order to secure our liberties, which are
indispensible to our happiness, every individual
must be usefully employed, so as to contribute
to the public good, and the gencyal tranquil-
lity. :
Considering that the soldier, wha has sacred
duties to perform, as being the safeguard of the
people, and in perpetual activity, to execute the
orders of his Chief, either, for maintaining in-
terior tranquillity, or for fighting abroad the
enemies of the country, is strictly subordinate
to his superior officers; and as it js of great imr
portance
Oe a ala ae aa ie em naa et
—6£ a
portance. that overseers, drivers, and. fleld-pe-
‘ groes, wha in.like manner have their superioys,
: shoyld conduct. themselves 49. officers, subal-
terns, and soldieys,. im whatever may concern
y them,
1 Considering that, when an offiger, « subaltern,
¢ or 3 soldiey, deviates from his. duty, he js deli-
; -yered over toa Court-mart!'. to be tried and
2 _ punished according to the teen of the Republic, \
o for in military service nozank is to be fayoured |
" when guilty; the overseers, drivers, ang fields
pegroes, as, subject to conatant labour, and |
"9 s equally subordinate te their superiors, shall be {
st _séBunithed. in like qpamner, in case of failure in
L their respective duties, ! i
hd | Whereas » soldier, gannot leave his campany, ‘|
e his battalion, or half-brigade, and enter inta | |
: . anpsher,.withont the severest, punishment, unr
: | Jess: provided with a permission in dye form
from hig Chief; field-negroes app forbidden ta quit
| _ their respective plantations without» lawful perr
soission ; this is by. ne means attended to, since
they change their place of labour 9a they pleane,
g9 to and fro, and pay not the least attention ta
’ ngricultuse, though the only means of furnish:
ing sustenance tothe military, their protectors:
they even conceal themselves in, towns, in yil-
ages, and mountains, where, allured by the
enemies pf good order, they live by plunder
and ia e etate of open ane tp pORIStY:
Whereas,
os & O
Lp “
[ 210 }
Whereas, ‘since the revolution, labourers ‘of
both sexés, ‘then’ ‘tdo ‘yout tb be’ ‘employed in
the field; refuse to’ go-to it now under pittext of
freedom, spend their time’ in ‘waridering’ about,
and give a bad example to the other cultivators;
while,‘on the other Hand}! ‘the’ Gerietals; ‘Officers,
Subalterns, and’ Solditis;ate 3 Ls ‘a state of “coni-
stant activity to maintain ‘the’ sacred © eagle" wd
ih people: bt 328 haul
“And ‘whereas, my" Prscnakbtiod of the ‘35
Brumairé; of the ‘7th 'yeat, ‘to ‘the peoplé'of St!
Domingo, was Calculated to'establish ait unis
form system of j incessant and’ tuboribus industry}
at the same “time at’ it Fequired from “all ‘the
Citizens indiscriminately’ the? co: petation ° of
cultivators, | sOldterdo whe civil powers, ‘as ‘.
cessary” for thé restoration’ ‘of St. Domingo :' i :
Being therefore thy determination that’ i
mentioned ' Proclamation shotild’’ be“cartiéd irito
full efféct, and that thé ‘abuses now in practice
amongst the: labourers ‘showld’ be at'an'end; from
‘the publication’ of “this ‘present regulation, ‘T 94
most péremptorily’ ‘order ‘as follows 99°"!
Art! 1) All’ ‘Overseers, ‘dtivers, ahd sine
gtoes; are bound ‘to observe; with exactness,
submission,’ and dbetlietice, their duty’: in the
‘same manner as soldiets:'’
Art. 2. All’ overvects, ‘drivers; and ° field
bourers, who ‘will not ‘petform with assiduity the
duties required of thei, ‘shall be atrested-and
punished
ae Fe
de: [ att ]
punished as severely as soldiers, deviating from
their duty: after which punishment, if the of.
fender be an overseer, he shall be enlisted) in
one ‘of the: regiments of the army of St. Do-.
mingo :| if a‘driver, he shall be dismissed from.
his employment;.and placed among, the, field-
‘negroes, without ever being permitted to,act ag
a driver'again': and, if a common labourer,; he
shall be punished with the: same severity, as..a
private soldier, according to ‘his guilt...
Art.'3. All field-labourers, men and -women,
now in‘a state of -idleness, living in, towns, vil-
lages,.‘and on other plantations, than those to
which'they belong, with an intention to evade
work;! ‘even those of both, sexes, who: have not
‘been employed in field-labsur since the revolu-
tion, are requited to, return immediately, to their
respective plantations, if, in the course of eight
days, fromthe promulgation of this: present:re-
gulation, they.shall not produce sufficient proof,
to the commanding Officers, in|the:places of
their residence, of their having some, useful. ¢ oc-
cupation or means of livelihood; but it is to. be
understood, that being a servant, is not to be
considered as an useful occupation: in conse-
quence whereof, those ;amongst the, labourers
who have quitted their plantations in order to
hire themselves, shall return thereto, under the
personal responsibility of those with whom they
live in that capacity. By the terms, “an useful
"- occupa-.
[ 212
occupation” is meant, what enables a man to pay
a contribution to the State.
‘Art. 4.. This measure, - indispensable to the
public welfare, positively prescribes to’ ll those
of either sex that are not labourers, to produce
the proofs of their having an occupation or-pro-
_fession sufficient ‘to gain their livelihood, and
that ‘they can afford to pay a contribution to
the Republic. Otherwise, and in default thereof,
all those who shall be found. in contravention
hereto, shall be instantly arrested, and if they
are found guilty, they shall be drafted into one
of the regiments of the army; if mot, they |
shalt be sent to the field, and compelled to
work.* This measure, which is’ strictly en-
forced, will put a stop to the idle habit of
wandering about, since it will oblige wey one
to be usefully employed. cor
At. 5. Parents are earnestly waltreated to atr
teria to ‘their duty towards their children, which
is, to'make them good citizens : for that pur-
pose they must instruct them in good'morals, in
the Christian religion, and the fear of God :
above all, exclusive of’ this education, they
. taust be breugiit up in some specific business or
profession, ‘to enable them, not only to earn
their living, but also to contribute to the ex-
pences of the government. ;
© How different from the former syateni must be that field
Yabor which is thought preferable to military service |! A
”
? pay
» the
those
pduce
P.pro-
, and
on to
ereof,
ntion
F they
to one
, they
led. ito
ly en-
bit of
. d
=
{ 213 J :
Art. 6. .“ll persons residing in towns and vil-
lages, who shall harbour labourers of either sex,
all proprietors or tenants who shall suffer on
their plantations labourers ‘belonging to other
estates, without immediately making it known
to the Commandant of the district, or other mi-.
litary Officets in the places of their residence,
shall pay'a fine of 2, 3, or. 400-livres, according
to the abilities of the delinquent: in case of re- —
petition of the offence, they shall pay three
times as much; if the fine cannot be levied for
want of effects, the offender shall be impri-
soned for a month, and, in case of repetition,
for three months.
Art. 7. The overseers and drivers of every
plantation, shall make it their business to in-
form the commanding Officer of the district, in
repard to the conduct of the labourers undet
their management: as well as of those who
shall absent themselves from their plantations
without a pass: and of those who, residing on
the estates, shall refuse to work. They shall be
forced to go to the labour of the field, and if -
they prove obstinate, they shall be arrested and
carried before the military Commandant, in or-
der to suffer the punishment above prescribed,
pccording to the erigence of the case.
The military Commandants who shall ‘not in-
form the Commandants of districts, and ‘these
the Generals under whose orders they act,’ shall
en be
f 214 ]
be severely punished, at. the sisgmfion of the
said Generals. «,
© Art. 8. The Generals; sestviniriding the de-
partments, shall hericeforth be answerable to me
for any neglect; in the,cultivation of, their dis-
tricts: And when going through the several pa-
rishes and departments, I shall percieve, any
marks of negligence,: I shall proceed against
those who have tolerated jt.:)) 1 5i¥-
Art. 9. I forbid all military men whatsoever,
vticlbe the responsibility of the commanding
Officers; to suffer any women to remain in the
barracks; those excepted that are married to
soldiers, as well as those who carry victuals to
men confined to their quarters; ,but these, shall
not be allowed to remain any time; plantation
women are totally excluded, .The commanding
Officers; shall answer for the, execution of this
Article. ; 2 Magy bie ribaiic didn
«Art. 10.. .. The Npilcadaats of the ag or
the officers in‘the, villages, shall not ,suffer, the
labourers or field-negroes to spend. the Decades
jn towns 3. they shall also; take care that they do
‘not conceal themselves,, Such Officers, as shall
not punctually.: attend. to; this order,, shall. be
punished with six days’confinement for. the first
time, a month. for. the.. second, and. shall , he
cashiered for the third offence, , They, shall give
information to the commandant, of the district,
‘of such labourers as are found inthe towns dur-
ing
of the
e. de-
to me
ir.dis-
‘al pa-
e. any
gainst
OCVET,
nding
n the
ied to
als to
. shall
tation
ding
if this
Ss, oF
pr. the
cades
py do
shall
1 be
B first
lb 215. |
ing the Decades, and: of the , persons. at ices
houses they were taken up,; that the said persons
may be. condemned. to-pay. the fine imposed by.
Article 6.of this present, regulation, |The plan-.
tation people, who-in such, cases, be brought be-
fore the commandant of the district, shall be
sént:back to:their plantations. after receiving the
punishment, as, above,directed by. Article @,.
Wik. ‘. a Strong tecommendation to,the command-,
ing Officer of theiri quarter, that a watchful, eye,
may ibe kept on,themfor,the future. ;,_ , :
~pAté 1b All the Municipal., ducloinietations
of St. Domingo are requested to take: the wisest
measures,; together with, the Commandants. of
towns and of ‘the districts, to ‘inform themselves
whether .those. who call themselves domestics,
really. are so,, observing, that plantation negroes
cannot be domestics: any person keeping them _
in that quality will be liable*to pay the above-'
méntioned fine, as well as those who’shall detain
labourers of either s sex « for any. kind of employ-
ment.
», Are.: 12, All Commissaries of Secret in
the Municipalities will make it their duty,to in-
form me of (all the abuses;respecting the execur
‘tion of this regulation, ‘and to'give advice! of
the same to the.Generals. of Department... ..;3
» Art.\k3. IT command.all the. Genegals; of ,;De-
partment, Generals, and, other principal oftiggrs
‘in the.districtay. to. attepe to, the; executipaief
this .
\
[216
this Hgulate®; fer Which they shall be petsot
ally feaponsible: and I faster sayself that their
véal, itt nestdtings ie to testore-the public prose.
petity, Will nut Be moitentary;. conviticéd af
they mast be that Liberty cams caist without
~ Phdustty, 9".
- 9 his present Regulation shall be printed, tend,
publistied, ald posted ap wherever it. is deces-
saty, even oh phintations; so that no one rimy
preted igtiordnte thereof It shall likewise be
sent to all she Civil and Military Authorities,
together With thy Proclamation of the 25th Bru-
Maite aldve thentioned; Whith for that. purpose
| dhall be *é4pritited, sb that every one may cons
form strictly to the duties required of hier
Given at Plead-quatters, Port Repudiiean,
‘Vendemtaire 20th, itil year of the
French Repablic, ‘ont awd fndivisible,
(Sigued) Toussaint LOvvzarvay,
The Aethet Ganet be endwerable for the
wttitaty of the above paper, which bears some
wharke af ideotvect tratelation Tt was pub»
Msheed it die Sea, amd other newspapers, . some
time in Dezember last, “with ‘aw. introduction,
WhHe? the pytuics, “4 Jemeics Planter,” in.
BAY 16. Gherewt Toiesainue’s Constitution,
‘Phe eH @ thes regulations, 2nd Confirms
et them.
f- 217 |
them. The paper certainly, if genuine, proves
that Toussaint had established, _ or was endear
vouring to introduce a very strict military go-
vernment; but’@ man must be grossly ignorant
of the nature of West India bondage, not to
know that such a government however to Eng-.
lish eyes disgusting, is, when compared to do-
mestic slavery, a substitute most ardently to be
desired. i
POSTSCRIPT.
.
)
¥
A)
opis tener Sisk Mac 29, 1402.
AT the moment when this work is
ready tc issue from the press, fresh accounts
from St. Domingo officially published in France,
are laid before the English Public; and if the
information contained in the Advertisement pre-
fixed to these Letters, was not unnecessary to
guard the writer from being: suspected of disin-
genuousness, it seems still more requisite now
_ to strengthen that precaution, hy requesting the
Reader’s attention to the date of the present
publication ; -for so fully are some of the most
important of his conje:tures confirmed by
these official papers, ‘that he might otherwise
very probably be suspected of having wished to
give to speculations founded on known events,
a false air of political foresight. Let it there-
fore be observed that this work is delivered to.
the Public on the morning after the publication
of General Leclere’s and Admiral Villaret’s dis-
patches of’ February 16, in the London news-
papers.
Ai The
{ 219 ]
The Author desires that these dispatches
may be compared. with his observations in
the first Letter, respecting . the probable in-
tentions of the French Government; and that
the following passage in Leclerc’ s Proclama-
tion may. be particularly noticed : “ Vesterday
their perfidsous intentions were unmasked. —
General Toussaint sent me his children with
@ letter in which he assures.me that there was
nothing he so much desied-as the prosperity .of
the Colony, and..that he was ready to obey all
the orders. that I should give him...I ordered
him to come. before me, and gave. him my word
that I would employ.u1m as my. LIEUTENANT
Generau.—He did not reply tc'this order furr-_
| ther. than. by phrases that.were only designed to
gain time.. My ORDERS FROMTHE, FRENCH
GOVERNMENT. ARE, THAT I PROMPTLY. RE-
STORE PROSPERITY AND aBUNDANCY. If I
suffer myself to be amused by crafty and_perfi-
dious,artifices, the Colony will be the theatre of
a Laem civil war.”
..The Reader will observe, that the nore
nrture of Toussaint’s tenporising pirases. and
the contents of the letter which he sent by his
children to Leclerc, are wholly suppressed); as
well as.those orders. of | the French Govern-
ment,, rather than submit to whitch, this, ex-
tranrdinary man whom the - virtwous Leclerc
calls. perfidious, refused the office of second
in
[ 220 |
in‘ command, ‘with the rank of Lieutenant
Geritral, and chose to encounter alll the: / agar
of resistance.
Unfdttunately, Toussaint cannot state to’ us
his Own cast; we must be long content to re-
e¢ive such accounts only from St. Domingo‘as
the French Government ¢hooses to publish ; but.
in the mean time let us reflect, that the commu:
nications on both sides were such as the French
General in a Proclamation publishéd in the Co-
lony did not venture to disclose; and’ let the
words “ my order's are promptly to restore pros-
perity and wbundanrce” be compared with theit
tematkable context ; and with the observations
contained in this work from pages 28-to 42, It
- Beciis to peep out in spight of the address of the
Frene.. General, that at least one difference be-
tween Toussaint’s views ind his dwn orders was,
thet the latter containud some specific measures
which Toussaint opposed; for che prompt reeti-
tution of agriculture, «Let any man fead the
regulations ia the Appendix, and afterwards say
in what means for that perpose the black Ge-
noral would not have been ready t6 concut, tx-
cept the restitution’ of prey ee and the
cart-whip,
Should ‘a doubt still temain on this important
point, ‘let Vitaret’s lettet to the British Admiral
be steended po ce Kaye sforce will at tast
1 peeeatablish
\
[ 901 ]
re-establish in this: Colony the form of @ g0-
vernment prescribed by the.laws of the Mather
Country, and protect those principles which coax
alone preserve, and. upan which. reposes, : the
common interest of all the European Powers. in.
their establishments in the Antilles,” What are
those principles and that form of Gevernment
in ‘the Antilles which are thus identified with
the British policy in those Islands? Surely after
reading this passage, we cannot hesitate to pro-
nounce, that the restitution of the old system in
all its rigour is the direct object of France, and
saust abhor the hypoerisy: that hold. vut at the
same moment a guarantee of their freedom to
the Negroes.
It is further to be sntnaticed on these very in-
teresting dispatches, that the Colonists whom
the French Commanders. have prevailed upon
to join them, are chiefly mulattoes, who were
presumably free before the Revolution and per-
haps have private interests as masters on the side
of the Republic. Clervaur who betrayed the |
pos: ©. ousted to him, is described as a person of
thar ¢iir ur; and seven hundred mulattoes fur-
“merly in the-service of Rigaud, are said to have
sent an offer of their services from Cuba, where
they were'in exile. Let it be remembered, that
Rigaud was the zealous enemy of Great Bri-
tain, from whose hostility Jamaica was expused
to great danger ti) he was subdued by Toussaint.
The
|
|
|
[ 222 ] :
The Author regrets that withoutfurther delay-
ing the publication of this work, »vhichhas ‘been
- already deferred too long, it is:impossible to offer
all the important observations: which .these- dis-
patches suggest, and especially ‘to:-remark upon
that .application to\the government of Jamaica,
which:confirms another:6f his:conjéctures....;°
be
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